Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine held one cruiserweight world title at the start of 2018. He’ll finish with all four major belts, becoming one of only five fighters to hold all four at the same time.
For his work, Usyk is our 2018 Fighter of the Year.
What is perhaps most impressive about his three victories this year was that all were in his opponents’ home country.
Usyk, 31, started by winning a majority decision over Mairis Briedis in a title-unification bout in January in Briedis’ hometown of Riga, Latvia.
That meant Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) had two of the belts.
Usyk, 31, hit the road again to take on Murat Gassiev in his native Russia. Gassiev was undefeated at 26-0 and held the other two titles.
Usyk beat him via unanimous decision.
Then it was on to Manchester, England to defend all four belts against Tony Bellew of Liverpool. Usyk stopped Bellew in the eighth round to complete a year to remember.
Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with a winner for this award. This was not one of those years. That said, there was brief consideration for Canelo Alvarez.
Alvarez went 2-0 this year. His second victory Dec. 15 was a third-round TKO of overmatched Rocky Fielding, who somehow came in holding a super middleweight title, as Alvarez moved up from middleweight.
It was Alvarez’s majority-decision victory over then-middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in September in Las Vegas that had us thinking about Alvarez. We understand that some reporters had Golovkin winning. We recognize that.
But when Alvarez and Golovkin fought the first time in September 2017, there was nothing but complaining about the way Alvarez fought in that one, which ended in a controversial split-draw.
Alvarez ran more in that fight than he has in any other. There were many – yours truly included – that thought Alvarez wanted no part of going toe-to-toe with the heavy-handed Golovkin.
But Alvarez absolutely stood his ground in that second fight, and never ran.
That was impressive. But we have a hard time giving this particular award – or any other – to a fighter who tested positive for a banned substance – in this case clenbuterol – like Alvarez did twice in February.
Alvarez was suspended six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and his rematch – which was slated for May 5 – had to be put off until September.
Alvarez and his camp – including promoter Oscar De La Hoya – claimed meat contamination in Mexico was why Alvarez tested positive. But that’s their story.
Our thing says that if you have a dirty test and you can’t prove you did not do it on purpose, you can’t win anything here. Not that Alvarez cares what we do. Hey, he got the victory over Golovkin and that is what he truly cares about.
Abner Mares-Gervonta Davis
Abner Mares of Hawaiian Gardens has won world titles at bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight. He’ll be going for a title in a fourth weight class when he challenges Gervonta Davis of Baltimore for his super featherweight belt Feb. 9 at StubHub Center (on Showtime).
Davis is a cocky sort, but he gave Mares some respect at their Los Angeles news conference Thursday.
“I believe that Abner Mares is a future Hall of Famer because he’s fought so many top-level guys,” said Davis, 24. “This is big for me because this is my first time being a main event in the U.S. and I just feel blessed to be here.”
Mares, 33, is coming off a unanimous-decision loss to featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz this past June at Staples Center. He explained his decision to move up in weight rather than stay at featherweight and try to win another title there.
“One day I just thought to myself that this fight against Gervonta Davis would be a great matchup and that I can win it,” he said. “There are other big fights at featherweight that I could have gotten. I’m taking this fight because of the challenge that it brings. I’m all about that.”
Davis, a southpaw, is 20-0 with 19 knockouts. Mares is 31-3-1 with 15 knockouts.
ETC
Showtime’s first televised card of 2019 will feature top 10 lightweight Devin Haney (20-0, 13 KOs) of San Francisco taking on Xolisani Ndongeni (25-0, 13 KOs) of South Africa from StageWorks in Shreveport, La. … Jamie Munguia (31-0, 26 KOs) of Tijuana is one of the more exciting world champions around these days, and he will be back in the ring Jan. 26 when he defends his junior middleweight title against Takeshi Inoue (13-0-1, 7 KOs) of Japan from Toyota Center in Houston (on DAZN). … We are three weeks out from the Jan. 19 welterweight title fight between champion Manny Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) and Adrien Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs) at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on Showtime pay-per-view).
