Hernan Marquez Picks Up WBA Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year Awards

At the annual WBA event, the awards for both fight of the year and fighter of the year went to the WBA flyweight champion Hernan ‘Tyson' Marquez, according to Carlos Costa. The fight of the year was the first fight between Hernan Marquez and Luis Concepcion. Personally, that was my fight of the year but it ranked fourth in the BLH annual awards with the Wolak vs. Rodriguez fight snagging the award. The Tyson - Concepcion fight was at a disadvantage because it was a fight in the flyweight division and it was not widely televised in the US or elsewhere. It is good to see this fight get some recognition.

One of the bigger surprises was that Herman Marquez also walked away with the fighter of the year. Almost everyone else in the boxing community selected Andre Ward as the fighter of the year including BLH by a landslide.In fact, Hernan Marquez was only the fourth best fighter of the year according to our distinguished panel.

Andre Ward's first title was the WBA title he won from Mikkel Kessler, so it makes sense for the WBA to try to honor him, since he is a current titleist. Yet, the WBA decide to go with Tyson for his two TKOs of Luis Concepcion and a TKO victory against Edrin Dapudong. It is a little strange to give a guy fighter of the year for essentially two victories over the same guy.

That being said, I also thought that Marquez had a good year and in my eyes he did enough to be my #2 fighter of the year (take a wild guess at who was #1). It's nice for Marquez to pick up some honors for his outstanding year. He certainly surprised a bunch of people and that should be worth something. What do you guys think? Does Hernan Marquez deserve a fighter of the year award for effectively beating the same guy twice?