Boxing Match of the Year: Salido vs. Kokietgym
To a large segment of American sports fans, boxing is Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and perhaps Canelo Alvarez. And that's it.
To those fans, 2014 may have been a disappointment.
And this year was disappointing, in a way, in that the two best fights by far were far from the eyes of the majority of America's casual boxing fans.
On Aug. 8 in Monterrey, Mexico, Francisco Rodriguez defeated Katsunari Takayama for the IBF/WBO strawweight titles in one of the best fights I've ever seen. It was non-stop action from bell to bell, and when it was over, it didn't really matter who won. Those who saw it knew they'd witnessed something special.
Just six weeks later in Tijuana, Mexico, the slam-dunk choice for Fight of the Year had some company. Orlando Salido and Terdsak Kokietgym engaged in an almost hard-to-believe slugfest on Sept. 20 in a bout for the vacant WBO super featherweight title that featured seven knockdowns and even more changes in momentum, with Salido winning by 11th-round KO.
Mexico was home to a third fight that deserves Fight of the Year consideration, as well. Rodrigo Guerrero stopped Daniel Rosas in the seventh round of a super bantamweight bout on Feb. 15 in Tapachula.
Just 25 seconds into the bout, Guerrero was hurt and staggered to the ropes. But 20 seconds later, Guerrero recovered and hurt Rosas. And that's the way the fight went from the torrid beginning until the dramatic end.
As good as the Guerrero-Rosas fight was – and believe me, it was sensational – it falls out of contention because it didn't carry the significance of the other two and the skill level wasn't as high.
The action was extraordinary and that’s always the first consideration when determining Fight of the Year. But when the choices are close, as these three are, the nod goes to the fights with the greater significance and the fighters with the higher skill levels.
Using that criteria, Guerrero-Rosas will come in third in the running, leaving my choice between the Rodriguez-Takayama battle and the Salido-Kokietgym slugfest.
There is no wrong answer in this choice. Rodriguez and Takayama literally threw thousands of punches in their epic match.
Salido and Kokietgym were very active, as well, though not quite as much as the strawweights had been.
But the two things that Salido-Kokietgym has going for it that Rodriguez-Takayama does not are power and changes in momentum.
Rodriguez clearly won the fight with Takayama, though the one score of 119-108 was too wide. The momentum did not shift from side to side in that fight as much as it did in Salido-Kokietgym. Salido would appear to be in charge and Kokietgym would rally.
As soon as it seemed that Kokietgym was in command, Salido would come back.
Salido was down in Rounds 1, 2 and 5, but Kokietgym was down in Rounds 1, 4, 7 and 11, and there was no count after the final knockdown.
The action was brutal and intense throughout, but Salido's toughness and underrated skill carried the day.
For those reasons, Salido-Kokietgym is the Yahoo Sports 2014 Fight of the Year.
The televised Card of the Year was the April 4 show put on by Main Events in Philadelphia. Curtis Stevens rallied to stop Tureano Johnson in the 10th round of a wildly entertaining fight, while in the main event, Steve Cunningham and Amir Mansour put on a great heavyweight slugfest.
Given that both fights deserve legitimate consideration for Fight of the Year, the show on the NBC Sports Network was easily boxing’s top televised card.
