JB1975
Brownlow Medallist
So what are people's thoughts on the Fight of the Year for 2019? I went back and watched The Ring's five nominees and for me there were two clear standouts. My personal rankings:
#5. Taylor vs Prograis: great technical display and probably the most even bout of the nominees. Absorbing fight but lacked the out-of-your-seat dramatic moments of some of the others.
#4. Pacquiao vs Thurman: this was like watching a computer game - both guys trading punches non-stop with barely a clinch seen all match. But for all the non-stop action I felt it lacked the drama of the next three fights.
#3. GGG vs Derevyanchenko: love a fight that develops it's own storyline and this had a good one with Derevyanchenko suffering a bad cut early and managing to protect it and outbox GGG for much of the match. I thought he was unlucky not to get the decision in the end, maybe the 1st round flash knockdown affected the perception of the following rounds.
Daylight
#2. Spence vs Porter: I thought nothing would get close to Inoue/Donaire until I watched this. I loved this fight, brilliant hard-hitting all out war from start to finish. Fantastic performance from both guys.
#1. Inoue vs Donaire: this was the fight that made me fall in love with boxing, so I made sure to go back and rewatch to compare to the others and, yep, it's still my #1. Spence/Porter might have been the brawl of the year but this was the boxing match of the year for me. Both guys showed great chins taking multiple heavy clean shots. Great ebbs and flows with Donaire absorbing a ridiculous amount of punishment before coming back and rocking Inoue, only for Inoue to reassert his dominance despite a fractured nose and eye socket. Massive respect for both guys after watching this.
I haven't seen Spence v Porter, was glad to hear that Porter put in a better performance than anyone thought he would. I'll check it out at some stage, but I find it hard to think that it'd be better than Inoue v Donaire. I re-watched it the other day, enjoyed it just as much as the first time I saw it. The amount of speed, skill and concentration both fighters continued to display until the final bell was awe-inspiring.