There were some damn good fights in 2011, though as usual most (not all) of the really great ones weren't on HBO or Showtime.
Our runner-up for Fight of the Year actually had the most first-place votes of any fight. The October 24 fight at Tokyo's legendary Korakuen Hall between 105-pounders Akira Yaegashi and Pornsawan Porpramook was a true barnburner, and the fact that a Japanese fight got this much support from our voting pool, which is almost entirely American and British, is pretty remarkable.
But with scored voting like this, more weight was given to the four first-place and six second-place votes for the July 15 Friday Night Fights epic between Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez, and that fight wins the polling on a score of 38-36.
Let's just say either fight would have been a truly worthy winner. The full breakdown is after the jump, as this table is a bit bigger than the previous three.
| Fight (Date) | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pawel Wolak vs Delvin Rodriguez (7/15) | 4 | 6 | 0 | 38 |
| Akira Yaegashi vs Pornsawan Porpramook (10/24) | 6 | 1 | 3 | 36 |
| Andre Berto vs Victor Ortiz (4/16) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| Luis Concepcion vs Hernan Marquez (4/2) | 1 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
| Miguel Acosta vs Brandon Rios (2/26) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Antonio DeMarco vs Jorge Linares (10/15) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Adrian Hernandez vs Kompayak Porpramook (12/23) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Marcos Maidana vs Erik Morales (4/9) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Amir Khan vs Lamont Peterson (12/10) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Danny Green vs Antonio Tarver (7/20) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez (11/12) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Jean Pascal vs Bernard Hopkins (5/21) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The top HBO fight of the year was Berto vs Ortiz, which we'll see again on February 11, but this time on Showtime. Showtime's top fight (and the only vote-getter from the network) was Acosta vs Rios.
And I can't help but think had Hernandez vs Kompayak happened a couple of months earlier, it would have garnered significant support as well.
Voters for the 2011 Bad Left Hook Boxing Awards are Scott Christ, Andrew Fruman, Brickhaus, Matt Miller, James Foley, Sean Mills, Ryan Bivins, Waldo Rastel, Kory Kitchen, Matt Mosley, Oli Goldstein, Nick Foxx, Chris Celletti, Sidney Boquiren, and Corey Erdman.