Floyd Mayweather Named Fighter Of 2013.

By Paul Hampton.

2013 was one of the best years boxing has had in recent memory, and as Sports Illustrated recapped the past 12 months, it honored Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer as the iconic publication's Promoter of the Year.

"This is obviously an unexpected award, but I'm very appreciative and honored," said Schaefer. "But I must point out that a single person can't do what Golden Boy Promotions has done in 2013, so I'd like to thank my staff, our fighters, our sponsors and TV partners for their continued support and efforts in 2013. In the end, this is all about the fans of our great sport and I will continue to deliver the best fights and fighters to them in 2014 and beyond."

But that's not all, as pound-for-pound great Floyd Mayweather was named 2013's Fighter of the Year by Yahoo Sports.

"I am proud that my friend Floyd Mayweather has been voted as the Fighter of the Year by Yahoo," added Schaefer. "Floyd personifies that with hard work and dedication anything is possible. Together, we will continue to break records and elevate the great sport of boxing."

Wrote Sports Illustrated boxing writer Chris Mannix of Schaefer,
"Even Schaefer's harshest critics will admit: It's been a good year for Golden Boy Promotions. Banished by HBO -- a decision based on Golden Boy's steering of many of its high profile fighters to Showtime -- Schaefer has been a driving force behind Showtime's transformation into a legitimate competitor to HBO. With a deep stable at his disposal, Schaefer has put together big fight after big fight, from Saul Alvarez-Austin Trout to Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse to Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana. As Floyd Mayweather's co-promoter, Schaefer was instrumental in the biggest promotion of the year, Mayweather-Alvarez, a fight that generated 2.2 million pay per view buys and became the highest grossing ($150 million) pay-per-view fight of all time. With a young roster -- excluding 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins, who will try to become a unified titleholder next year -- Golden Boy has a bright future."

Veteran Yahoo Sports boxing scribe Kevin Iole was equally effusive in his praise of Mayweather, writing, "He's one of those guys who will be appreciated much more when he's gone than he is while he's still competing. But he's the best of the best, and he was the best of a very good crop of fighters in 2013. For that, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the 2013 Yahoo Sports Boxing Fighter of the Year."


http://v2journal.com/16/post/2013/12/floyd-mayweather-named-fighter-of-the-year.html

Am right in thinking there was a hook up between Yahoo Sport and the Ring at some point?  Is there still a connection?

       

Oh look, Strongy is going to pick apart Mayweather and the fact he probably should be Fighter of the Year.

Are you sure he didn't win best paid boxer of 2013 as he can't have been fighter of the year can he

He had a good year but with Rigo, Stevenson, Kovalev, Garcia (both of them) who are more deserving I find it a bit of a cop out

Tough one this, hard to argue against Floyd given he's still the P4P number 1, the Alvarez win was massive and the fight everyone wanted to see, people are just disappointed he won it so easily, also Guerrero is a very good win as well backing it up.

A lot of people would like Stevenson for this but for me Boone adds nothing, Bellew is a solid win but nothing special, Cloud not a lot better and coming off a loss and Dawson although a very good win he was coming off a defeat as well.

Rigondeaux easily has the best win of the year over Donaire but it's backed up by nothing else, Agbeko at this stage doesn't add much.

Bradley had a good year but operates in the same division as Floyd and isn't as good. For me Provodnikov and Marquez not as good as Guerrero and Alvarez and both fights were closer than Floyds.

Mikey Garcia had a great year so I would have been tempted to go with him, 2 world titles in 2 weights and Salido, Lopez and Martinez are all good wins and in pretty emphatic style as well.

WHU_Champo_League_in_7Yrs wrote:Are you sure he didn't win best paid boxer of 2013 as he can't have been fighter of the year can he

He had a good year but with Rigo, Stevenson, Kovalev, Garcia (both of them) who are more deserving I find it a bit of a cop out

Completely forgot Kovalev, he's a good shout. 4 very good wins.

Completely disagree with Danny Garcia though, struggled a bit with a washed up Judah and a very good win over Matthysse isn't fighter of the year stuff. As good as the Matthysse win is it's no better than Alvarez and Guerrero is twice the fighter Judah is these days.

Think Yahoo kinda just went "Floyd Mayweather is the best boxer, and he won his fights, ergo, he is the fighter of the year". I don't think Guerrero is as good a fighter as most here seem to think he is, I certainly don't think he is a better p4p fighter than Cloud (which is saying something I suppose). Stevenson went 4-0 all via KO, and lost 0 rounds in a division he'd never fought in, beating three Ring ranked fighters on the way, the champ, #3, and #5. If that doesn't earn you fighter of the year, then we might as well start calling this "> 154lbs fighter of the year, really."

kingraf wrote:Think Yahoo kinda just went "Floyd Mayweather is the best boxer, and he won his fights, ergo, he is the fighter of the year". I don't think Guerrero is as good a fighter as most here seem to think he is, I certainly don't think he is a better p4p fighter than Cloud (which is saying something I suppose). Stevenson went 4-0 all via KO, and lost 0 rounds in a division he'd never fought in, beating three Ring ranked fighters on the way, the champ, #3, and #5. If that doesn't earn you fighter of the year, then we might as well start calling this "> 154lbs fighter of the year, really."

How on earth do you rate Guerrero lower than Cloud? Cloud has fought 3 good opponents, robbed one and been embarrassed but the other two. His last 3 fights he's barely won a round since the 1st against Campillo. Guerrero isn't the P4P top ten guy some would have you believe but he is very very good and was only made to look bad by the very best.

I don't think it's an absurd choice at all, he has two very good wins and it's all much of a muchness.

Cloud and Dawson were both coming off losses not career best wins like Alvarez and Guerrero while Cloud simply isn't that good anyway. Bellew and Boone add very little.

Garcia has beaten his biggest rival in Matthyse but in both his fights he was in trouble to varying degrees much like Bradley. Mayweather won each and every round of both his fights adding two ring magazine titles to his collection in the process, his wins coming across two divisions is a plus point over the others.

Would have gone for Rigondeaux personally if not for the Donaire win on it's own which is the single best win anybody in the world currently has.

Bell - quite simple for me, Guerrero simply isn't that good. He got a shot at Floyd because he beat Andre Berto, fair enough, but Berto has lost three out of four, and hadn't fought in fifteen months (a loss at that). Post super featherweight, he's only held interim/intercontinental belts, I'm not sure why youd have me believe the gap between him and Cloud is that large, unless you are of the school of thought that a fighter only needs to have displayed signs of a pulse at > 154 to be inherently better.

kingraf wrote:Bell - quite simple for me, Guerrero simply isn't that good. He got a shot at Floyd because he beat Andre Berto, fair enough, but Berto has lost three out of four, and hadn't fought in fifteen months (a loss at that). Post super featherweight, he's only held interim/intercontinental belts, I'm not sure why youd have me believe the gap between him and Cloud is that large, unless you are of the school of thought that a fighter only needs to have displayed signs of a pulse at > 154 to be inherently better.

Berto was coming off a pretty decent win, he stopped Zaveck who recently went the distance with Thurman. Beating the undefeated Aydin is also better than anything Cloud has done unless you count robbing Campillo as a solid win. Clouds best legitimate win is probably Yusaf "Knocked out by anyone with a pulse" Mack.

You obviously didn't watch the Berto-zaveck fight, berto had won the early rounds but couldn't hurt Zaveck and was gassed when it was stopped on a cut, he may have won but he could have easily lost too

The thing is floyd is heavy favourite, and while his wins are good they aren't anything special and they were expected. You could argue that Floyd hasn't fought a fighter of the calibre of Donaire throughout his entire career, and he has never overturned the underdog tag like Bradley or Danny

Alvarez Floyd gets props for, but not guerrero. Let me ask, who is aydin? If it wasn't for the fact he jumped 2 weight divisions no one would count that as a big win. And as someone said, Berto has been exposed and was coming off his longest layout of his career prior to Guerrero

Boxing News went for Floyd too. Wouldn't have been my choice but not a lot in it.

I wonder if any of the last tens years winners would have changed with the benifit of hindsight? A little down the road the value of a fighters wins are usually clearer (i.e. their opponent was under or over valued). For example if Canelo goes on to have a stellar career post Mayweather then the value of the win will be increased. But if he has been shown up and gets a fair few defeats in the next few years then people will question more how Floyd won fighter of the year 2013.

WHU

Do we judge on who the best fighter has been or how much they have achieved relative to their talent?

For me the first part of that question is either Rigondeaux or Mayweather but the second part is a lot more subjective. Garcia and Stevenson have done more relative to their talent but is struggling against a faded Judah and Matthyse actually any better than shutting out Guerrero and Alvarez? Not for me it isn't and then there's Stevenson who's biggest wins have come against guys coming off conclusive losses, again doesn't stack up to dominating an unbeaten world champion and a guy who hadn't lost for 8 years. The Guerrero fight adds very little to Mayweathers legacy but his legacy is defined by far harsher parameters than any other active boxer but it was still a win over one of the divisions best fighters.

Like I said previously would have chosen Rigondeaux but he's such a dour boxer to watch at time he was never going to be in the running.

WHU_Champo_League_in_7Yrs wrote:You obviously didn't watch the Berto-zaveck fight, berto had won the early rounds but couldn't hurt Zaveck and was gassed when it was stopped on a cut, he may have won but he could have easily lost too

The thing is floyd is heavy favourite,  and while his wins are good they aren't anything special and they were expected. You could argue that Floyd hasn't fought a fighter of the calibre of Donaire throughout his entire career, and he has never overturned the underdog tag like Bradley or Danny

Alvarez Floyd gets props for, but not guerrero. Let me ask, who is aydin? If it wasn't for the fact he jumped 2 weight divisions no one would count that as a big win. And as someone said, Berto has been exposed and was coming off his longest layout of his career prior to Guerrero

You're judging Floyd by a different criteria to everyone else, he was a heavy favourite because he's better than everyone else and that surely makes him fighter of the year no? Matthysse would add nothing to Floyds legacy but is a career best win for Danny Garcia, if they were to both beat him it shouldn't count more towards Garcia being fighter of the year just because it was less expected and a bit of an over achievement whereas Floyd is supposed to win so nothing he does counts until he's fighting Middleweights.

Again - Guerrero hasn't won anything other than an intercontinental/Interim title post Super featherweight. Aydin is a fair win, but if youre best work at a division is to guys who then lost to Jesus... you're gonna struggle to convince me they make him a better p4p fighter.

He was upgraded to full champion at lightweight after Marquez vacated. The point is that he's gone from Featherweight to beating legitimate contenders at Welterweight, that alone makes him a clear level above Cloud in the p4p stakes. Add in not losing to a 48 year old, robbing Campillo then losing to Stevenson, it's pretty obvious who the better boxer is.

Can't see why Carl" Have I mentioned this week that I'm a Warrior" Froch isn't being named "Fighter of the Year". Then again, thinking about it, it's called "Fighter of the Year" not "Warrior of the Year"

Cloud has a better pedigree at light heavyweight than Guerrero has at welterweight -- forget the P4P nonsense.

I'd vote for Stevenson, Bradley or Rigo for fighter of the year. The spiel above is just a Golden Boy press release.

Check out The Queensberry-Rules year-end awards. Pretty good.

No shame in losing to Popkins. Campillo robbery is marginal... and Stevenson is the king at 175.

Guerrero beats Berto and suddenly he can walk on water/air and swim on land. Beats a Katsidis coming off a loss, and it's a legitimate victory. Beats an Aydin who then lost to Jesus, and lo and behold - you have a ring top ten fighter! Speaks volumes that you count his lightweight 'title' as a an actual title given the fact that he neither won it, nor did he defend it.

I'm just stating the facts about his lightweight titles and I don't see how Clouds credentials at 175lb are all that. Yes there is every shame in losing to a 48 year old, no top level fighter should be losing to such an old man. Guerrero isn't a great win by any stretch of the imagination but he simply is a better boxer than Cloud, the robbery of Campillo isn't marginal he should have lost.

hazharrison wrote:Cloud has a better pedigree at light heavyweight than Guerrero has at welterweight -- forget the P4P nonsense.

I'd vote for Stevenson, Bradley or Rigo for fighter of the year. The spiel above is just a Golden Boy press release.

Check out The Queensberry-Rules year-end awards. Pretty good.

Why Bradley? What makes his 2 wins better than Floyds?

The difference in quality of opposition is very marginal, Guerrero and Provodnikov are a similar level (that's a fight I'd like to see actually) and Alvarez at 152 vs Marquez at 147 is pretty similar level of win, personally I think Alvarez at 152 is better but can see an arguement for Marquez after the Manny fight. Why would Bradley get your vote but going for Mayweather is just spiel? Even if you do favour Bradleys wins the difference surely isn't that great.

Rigondeaux surely. Excellent win over Donaire, really stepping up to the plate. Better than any other win I can think of.

Alvarez was one of Mayweather better wins in the last few years but it was a joke he even fought Guerrero at all.

You have to remember Bellchees that certain posters on here will play down anything Mayweather has done for the sake of it while building up what others have done. Fighting Guerrero will be seen as a joke but Leonard fighting Green is perfectly valid, as is Duran fighting Robertson or Hagler fighting Lee.

Have to remember bellchees, that cetain posters on here are clueless when it comes to boxing and forget that Hagler, Leonard and Duran actually fought their biggest rivals.

Duran yes but the other two were just as selective with their matchmaking as Mayweather, remind me who Leonard won his 154lb, 168lb and 175lb titles against? Also remind me when Hagler ever moved up in weight and stopped fighting smaller men than himself?

Still talking out your ass Hammersmith. I think Leonard fighting the likes of Halger, Hearns, Benitez and Duran while Mayweather makes excuses for not fighting Pacquiao and starts to handpick Khan and Maidana makes you look like the right plum you are.

That sounds impressive but it's only part of Leonards career, why not mention his catchweight fight with Lalonde for the 168lb and 175lb titles? Or that he waited years to finally fight Hagler only after he looked to be on the slide against Mugabi or that he deliberately pushed through the rematch with Duran in the hope he wouldn't be in fighting shape. What about his epic fights with Finch, Green and Bonds or maybe not rematching Hearns until it no longer meant anything? Were Williams and Hill not good enough for him to face at light heavyweight?

Fighting Khan or Maidana is no worse than Leonard fighting any of his sub par opponents when he could have easily made fights against Pryor, Hill or McCallum.

If he fought Guerrero having had fought all or most of his biggest rivals and dominated his division instead of constantly avoiding them then I wouldnt have a problem. But he never did what Leonard did and actually take on really great fighters and massive rivals or dominate a division for years like Hagler.

Hearns, Hagler, Duran, Leonard these guys all got it on. Thats the part you and the other Mayweather maniacs dont seem to get.

Perhaps I am being a tad harsh but theres no citeria of how to win fighting with of the year

If it's who's looked the most devastating I'd say it's between Stevenson or Mikey Garcia as theyve dominated multiple opponents stopping most of them

If it's on individual wins then it's Rigo

If its on who's exceeded expectations id say Danny Garcia

Floyd is a contender but not a winner for me

Is that what Boxrec told you and it's so immature and pathetic the way you bang on about so called Mayweather fans as if you have the moral high ground.

Have no complaints with Duran, his opposition when he stepped up in weight is pretty untouchable but the others aren't beyond criticism. You have numerous times said that Mayweather should step up and face either Golovkin or Martinez but why is it ok for Hagler to stay in his comfort zone fighting men from lower divisions?

Why can Leonard purposefully stack all the cards in his favour, holding off on the Hagler fight until he saw vulnerability and then choosing the weakest champion at light heavyweight and still imposing a fairly obscene catchweight.

Why can Hearns bypass McCallum because the risk/reward wasn't high enough as well as a grievance his trainer had with his former charge?

Were Mayweather to have stayed at super featherweight constantly fighting smaller men would that have been acceptable?

You have given me a right laugh Hammersmith, Il say that for you. The short of it is that the era Leonard and co fought in was better, tougher and they fought the big fights. Mayweather has, for half his career cherry picked his way around a much lesser welterweight division managing to avoid the toughest fights. Its laughable you even try and draw parallels.

"Leonard fought Green, so therefore we can ignore that he fought Duran, Hearns, Benitez, Hagler etc and draw a comparison with Mayweather who fought Guerrero while never facing welterweights like Pacquiao, Cotto, Bradley, Williams, Margarito and so on"

"Hagler didnt fight Spinks so therefore we can excuse Mayweather failing to dominate his own division"

You are so bloody clueless and up Mayweathers ass that you try and overcomplicate a pretty easy point that Mayweather unlike those guys, didnt fight the tough fights out there for him or face his biggest rivals or dominate his division. This is why he is criticised. Incidentally, and you probably wont get this on boxrec, Leonard did actually get criticised when he was around for the stuff you mentioned but its easier to allow that when hes actually faced foes like Duran, Hearns or Hagler instead of saying he would prefer to vacate his title and fight Amir Khan. If Mayweather actually faced his top challenges on a consistent basis instead of looking for easier fights then far less people would care that he boxes the odd Guerrero or Khan here and there. Its when you make that approach the norm and consistently refuse the toughest fights out there that the criticism gathers momentum, as seemingly do the ridiculous excuses.

An article by Paul Hampton?? ....You wrote three lines!!

Arguing that Leonard was just as selective as Mayweather with regards to his matchmaking really is pushing things, I have to say HH! Simply taking the 1981 fight against an unbeaten, 32-0 (30) Hearns, ranked Ring's pound for pound number one at the time, already gives him a fair old margin over Floyd, who has rolled out excuse after excuse not to fight Pacquiao.

Taking on Hagler also represents a bigger risk than Mayweather's ever taken, and let's be frank, we know that Mayweather would never take that kind of risk under any circumstances.

Appreciate that Leonard 'played the game' a little bit after beating Hagler, and most of his titles and wins after that stage can be taken with a pinch of salt, but come on. Comparing him to Mayweather in terms of careful selection of opposition is doing him a disservice, and is really being kind to Mayweather, at least for me anyway.

It's more of a comparison before either of them moved up Chris, Mayweather fighting Hernandez, Manfredy and Corrales at 130lbs represented risk as did Leonard fighting Benitez, Duran and Hearns. Leonards trio there of a far higher standard but they represented the best available at each weight at the time. It was after the pair moved up that they became selective and both certainly liked having everything their own way which Mayweather did not have the luxury of against De La Hoya. Again Hagler at middleweight is a sterner test than Oscar at light middle but it's after those fights that comparison between the two can definitely be drawn.

bellchees wrote:

hazharrison wrote:Cloud has a better pedigree at light heavyweight than Guerrero has at welterweight -- forget the P4P nonsense.

I'd vote for Stevenson, Bradley or Rigo for fighter of the year. The spiel above is just a Golden Boy press release.

Check out The Queensberry-Rules year-end awards. Pretty good.

Why Bradley? What makes his 2 wins better than Floyds?

The difference in quality of opposition is very marginal, Guerrero and Provodnikov are a similar level (that's a fight I'd like to see actually) and Alvarez at 152 vs Marquez at 147 is pretty similar level of win, personally I think Alvarez at 152 is better but can see an arguement for Marquez after the Manny fight. Why would Bradley get your vote but going for Mayweather is just spiel? Even if you do favour Bradleys wins the difference surely isn't that great.

Marquez is the difference - a great fighter who has become a force at the higher weights since hooking up with Memo Heredia.

Alvarez sells tickets but still unproven (to date). Look what Lara did to Trout (who Alvarez went evens up with).

There wasn't really a stand out this year but I'd have those three ahead of Floyd.