For some, the Male Fighter of the Year category ended on May 7 Dmitry Bivol was announced as the unanimous decision winner over Canelo Alvarez. in their fight for the WBA lightweight championship at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Beating Alvarez cleanly, Bivol beat the man who was then as the best fighter in this world. Alvarez hands his first loss in nearly nine years and puts himself in the conversation as the pound-for-pound king of the sport.
But there are too many great fighters who put big-time money into this. While we don’t see all the fights you want to happen — you’re looking for Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford—there are a great many of them.
So I came up with six finalists for my 2022 Yahoo Sports Male Fighter of the Year for boxing: Bivol; undisputed bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue; former super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez; undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney; WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada; and WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Given the performances of these six men, it was unlikely that anyone would have fought in the Fighter of the Year category once.
Bivol defeated Alvarez he returned to dominate Gilberto Ramirez in the second defense. He won by scores of 117-111 twice and 118-110, while Ramirez was never in the fight.
Inoue started the year as one of the IBF-WBA bantamweight champions. He knocked out the great Nonito Donaire for the second time on June 7 to add the WBC belt, then became a contender on Dec. 13 when he dominated Paul Butler and prevented him from adding to his 11th WBO belt.
Rodriguez went 3-0 with a broad decision victory over Carlos Cuadras on Feb. 5. he stopped Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in the eighth on June 25, and then Israel Gonzalez on September 17.
Haney won the undisputed title going to Melbourne, Australia, and dominated George Kambosos Jr. Due to the stipulation of the contract in Australia, the Kambosos owed him compensation and beat him by a large margin.
Estrada is widely entrant, since he did not fight until Sept. 3. On Dec. 3, Estrada followed Gonzalez with a major decision win over Romano Chocolatito to win the vacant WBC title.
Fury made two title defenses, neither of which was hugely significant, but drew more than 16,000 in those significant ones. Dillian Whyte stopped for the sixth time before 94,000 on April 23. After a short retirement, Derek Chisora stopped on 10 on December 3.
Breaking through the logjam, Furia is first removed because the opposition is at the lowest level between the competitors. Rodriguez is due to the fact that two of his three fighters came over who had seen their best days.
And I’ll leave Estrada out because I don’t believe he fought Gonzalez. Haney’s opposition was not the best and so it goes.
That leaves me with Inoue and Bivol. This one is tougher, as Inoue has finished both fights against solid opponents. Boul entered the 34-1 round with Inoue, and was never close to being in the fight. Donaire had been on a roll but was fired by the big Japanese star.
Neither of these wins, although it was as big as Canelo Bivol’s wins. And how powerfully Bivol dominated Ramirez proves that Alvarez was not going to win the crest.
For these reasons, Dmitry Bivol is the 2022 Yahoo Sports Male Fighter of the Year in boxing.
Three fights for Female Fighter of the Year
Three finalists for my 2022 Yahoo Sports Male Fighter of the Year in boxing: Claressa Scuta, Katie Taylor and Alycia Baumgardner.
She went 2-0 with an impressive win over long-time rival Savannah Marshall for the undefeated middleweight title, as well as an exclusive unanimous decision over Ema Kozin.
Taylor was 2-0, both taking a split decision over Amanda Serrano for the undisputed lightweight title, as well as taking a unanimous decision over Karen Elizabeth Carbajal.
Baumgardner went 2-0, defending her WBC super bantamweight title via decision over Edith Soledad Matthysse, then claiming a controversial split decision over then-IBF-WBO champion Mikaela Mayer.
However, this is a type of horse. Marshall’s maiden win not only gave him the undisputed middleweight title, but also proved his attraction. He fought in front of more than 20,000 at the O2 Arena in London with a television audience of over 2 million on SkySports in the UK
Taylor’s win over Serrano gave him the undisputed lightweight title and a historic night at Madison Square Garden in New York with a crowd of 19,187.
The tiebreaker is that Shields’ clean beat Marshall, where there was a minor bit of controversy surrounding the victory over Serrano Taylor.
Yes Claressa Shields is the 2022 Yahoo Sports Male Fighter of the Year in boxing.