HBO Sports has put together a two-minute video package highlighting some of their best fights (and some that featured name fighters, too) from the year 2011. Here it is, before I start complaining about the obvious omissions:
In my view, HBO did indeed have some truly exceptional fights in 2011. But three of the best are not in this video.
First missing: The October 15 fight between Antonio DeMarco and Jorge Linares, which was maybe the most dramatic comeback of the year. Second missing: The April 9 fight between Marcos Maidana and Erik Morales. These fights have something in common, in that they were part of barely-purchased pay-per-view events. Third missing is Mike Alvarado vs Breidis Prescott from the Pacquiao-Maruqez undercard, but HBO has no investment whatsoever in either man. Perhaps that's not a good sign for DeMarco.
Meanwhile, there's Sergio Martinez vs Sergiy Dzinziruk, Sebastian Zbik vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and Canelo Alvarez vs Matthew Hatton.
Oh well. What can you do? It's still a pretty cool video. Tip your caps to DeMarco, Linares, Maidana, Morales, Alvarado and Prescott, the forgotten men who provided fantastic fights on HBO programming this year.