Pac Man Is The Year’s Best Fighter

It is not difficult to bestow this honor upon Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao. While his destruction of Oscar De La Hoya may not have been the year’s best or most significant fight, it did show that he is one bad man. It’s not that he beat the respected "Golden Boy," it’s the fact that he beat him down.  Giving up four inches in height, six inches in reach, and moving up to the heaviest weight (147) of his career, I figured the smaller Pacquiao was a long shot to defeat De La Hoya. I had a good year predicting boxing matches (84% success rate), but I sure screwed that one up.

I am not screwing up my "fighter of the year" pick though. It’s the Pac Man, hands-down. Earlier in the year, he also collected the WBC junior lightweight belt against fellow "pound for pound" rival Juan Manuel Marquez (49-4, 36 KOs) as well as the WBC lightweight strap when he destroyed the rugged David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs). Not that you needed any more evidence.

With all due respect to Joe Calzaghe fans, my runner-up is Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs).  Darchinyan’s two wins against then IBF super flyweight champion Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1, 9 KOs) and former super flyweight king Cristian Mijares (36-4-2, 15 KOs) trump Calzaghe’s wins over Bernard Hopkins (nothing to scoff at) and Roy Jones, Jr. (something to scoff at).

The 2008 Fighter Of the Year Is Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao.