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“Stack’s” Top Ten Fights of 2015

20130126_151022-1By Anthony “Stacks” Saldana (Who else would it be by?)

As 2015 comes to a close I decided to give you my top 10 boxing matches of the year. These fights in my opinion were all out wars, battles in which neither fighter was scared to leave it all in the ring. Yes we have a little less than a month of boxing left in 2015 and some superb matches coming up, hopefully one of those fights can make it on this list or even become fight of the year.

#10 Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez Vs Brian “The Hawaiian Punch” Viloria

From the start this fight had the buzz of possibly being fight of the year as Flyweight champion and many peoples number 1 pound for pound fighter Roman Gonzalez entered the ring in Madison Square Garden to battle the tough Brian Viloria. Viloria battled Gonzalez tough for nine round despite being floored by Chocolatito in the third round. Brian showed the heart of champion and stood toe to toe with Gonzalez until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight in the ninth.

#9 James “Chunky” DeGale Vs Lucian Bute

On a card that showcased two of the best fights of the year the Degale Bute fight brought fireworks from the start as the IBF Super Middleweight Champion Degale came into the home of former champion Bute and gave fans an action packed fight for 12 rounds. Bute took it too “Chunky” in the middle rounds as the fight became even more intense when James was cut by an accidental headbutt in the 5th. Although Bute fought a great fight degale landed the crisper shots and was announced as ‘Le Champion du Monde’.

#8 Keith “One Time” Thurman Vs Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero

While Keith Thurman kept his undefeated record March 7 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, he paid a physical price after an all-out war with Robert Guerrero. After early rounds that were punctuated by a head-butt that caused Thurman to develop a hematoma over his left eye, Thurman amped up the intensity with a ninth-round knockdown that looked, momentarily, like it might put Guerrero down for good. But the Gilroy, California, native showed tremendous heart in getting up off the mat and surviving a vicious flurry from Thurman to end the round. It seemed to switch something on in Guerrero, who came out with heavy lefts as he tried to return the favor. It wasn’t to be, though. Thurman absorbed plenty of punishment on his own, and managed earn the unanimous decision.

#7 Amir “Young Master” Imam Vs Adrian Granados

On a day full of upsets (Fury Klitschko) The WBC number 1 ranked undefeated Super Lightweight and mandatory challenger for Viktor Postol, Amir Imam stepped into the ring with young battle tested Adrian Granados. In the first round Imam dropped Granados with a heavy shot to the head, but Granados came back from a vicious first round knockdown to outwork Imam and wear the favored prospect out, eventually battering him into near submission when referee Alain Villeneuve stepped in to stop the bout at 2:34 of the eighth round. Imam loss came as a shock to many and has been called by other media outlets as “Upset of the Year”

#6 Andrzej Fonfara Vs Nathan Cleverly

Doubling and tripling up on his jab, Cleverly controlled the range in the first three rounds, landing at will. But it wasn’t enough to keep the hard-charging Fonfara off him for long. Fighting before an adoring crowd in his adopted hometown of Chicago, Fonfara began to put his stamp on the fight in Round 4, when he blitzed Cleverly early with a flurry of combos. From there, the action only intensified, as Cleverly and Fonfara stood toe-to-toe and blasted away at each tirelessly the whole fight.They smashed each other’s faces and a number of CompuBox records for the 175-pound division alike, setting the mark for most combined punches landed (936) and most combined punches thrown (2,524).Cleverly landed a record-setting 474 shots and peppered Fonfara with eight straight punches at one point in Round 9.Ultimately, it was Fonfara who landed the harder shots, busting Cleverly’s nose midway through the fight and rocking him repeatedly with savage left hooks. It was enough for Fonfara to earn a tight unanimous

#5 Leo “El Famoso Terremoto” Santa Cruz Vs Abner Mares

In a highly anticipated fight throughout the boxing world and especially in the Hispanic community of Southern California came the fight dubbed “Battle Los Angeles” between Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares. The fight started off at an explosive pace as Abner took control of the fight early only to get beat at the end. Mares bullied Santa Cruz early, unleashing a fierce, relentless body attack and continually bulldozing Santa Cruz into the ropes. Santa Cruz, normally a pressure fighter, displayed impressive composure, keeping calm and patiently breaking down Mares. By the middle rounds, Santa Cruz was landing the sharper, more effective shots, hammering Mares with right hands over Mares’ jab. Santa Cruz began to use to his length and fight from the outside, pulling away in the fight en route to winning a majority decision

#4 Marco Huck Vs Krzysztof Glowacki

In another fight that could possibly be upset of the year the Huck Glowacki fight gave everyone in the Prudential Center that night their monies worth. In the give and take cruiserweight title bout, Glowacki came out strong in the early rounds beating Huck with his power and speed on the inside. Huck started to find his rhythm in the middle rounds and out of nowhere put Glowacki on the canvas in the sixth with a punishing left hook to the temple. Glowacki recovered quickly and was able to finish the round. Both men stayed busy for the remainder of the later rounds with the judges heeding favor to Huck by the end of the 10th. However, Glowacki came out in the 11th and late in the round put Huck on the canvas with a hard left right combination. Huck beat the count only to have Glowacki jump on him immediately, throwing a series of punches that forced the referee to stop the fight at 2:39 in the round. Glowacki shocked the boxing world with a devastating 11th technical knockout.

#3 Jorge Linares Vs Kevin Mitchell

In a mega fight at the 02 arena in London WBC Lightweight Champion and Three time World Champion Jorge Linares went into an all-out war with Hometown favorite Kevin Mitchell. Linares was defending his belt for the first time but Mitchell, was boxing sharply and was confident. Mitchell looked set and ready to take the belt from Jorge, dropping the champion in the fifth. Linares was dazed and took his time regaining his feet, but by the end of the round appeared to have recovered and was firing back at Mitchell. Damage to Mitchell’s left eye hampered his attempts to win a world title, and when Linares dropped him in the 10th, referee Victor Loughlin stopped the contest with just three seconds left in the round. Mitchell was ahead on two cards and even on another at the time of the stoppage. Mitchell could hardly see and the grotesque swelling above his eye was ripping his cut face wide open. Both fighter gave the crowd in London that night a truly spellbinding fight.

#2 Francisco Vargas Vs Takashi Miura

In a fight that stole the show at the Mandalay Bay on the Canelo Cotto undercard. Francisco Vargas started fast in the fight, hurting Miura in the opening round, but the Japanese titleholder didn’t go down and battled through a spectacular first round for Vargas. In the second and third, Miura got back in the fight with some body work and a successful straight left hand, which hurt Vargas early in round four and dropped him later in that round leaving a horrible cut under the eye of Vargas. With Miura seemingly in control, Vargas made a stand in round eight, only to get badly hurt again late in the stanza, possibly surviving the round only because the bell sounded before Miura could put on the finishing touches. With cuts above and below his right eye, which was rapidly swelling shut, Vargas looked to get aggressive and turn the tide in round nine, and he did so with a crushing right hand that hurt Miura, nearly knocking him down, followed by two more clean blows that finally put Miura on the deck. But Miura gathered himself and returned to action, Vargas was all over him from that point on, and after several more clean shots, referee Tony Weeks was forced to stop the fight at 1:31 of round nine. At the time of stoppage, Vargas trailed on two scorecards, and the third was even. The Miura Vargas fight could easily have been my fight of the year.

#1 Lucas Matthysse Vs Ruslan Provodnikov

There were no titles at stake, no pound-for-pound consideration, either. The fight was just a heavily anticipated collision between Lucas Matthysse and Ruslan Provodnikov, two of the best junior welterweights in the world, two of boxing’s best punchers and two of the most exciting fighters alive. The men were never more than two steps away from each other and spent most of the night winging bombs at each other. Amazingly, there were no knockdowns as Matthysse pulled out a well-deserved majority decision victory. Provodnikov was cut early by an inadvertent head butt and fought most of the fight with blood coming down his face. Matthysse peppered him with powerful shots but amazingly, Provodnikov not only didn’t go down, he rarely took a backward step. “I saw the cut and I was hitting him and hitting him hard,” Matthysse said during his post-fight interview on HBO. “But he’s a rock. He was undeterred. He took a lot of hard punches. He even hurt my hand. He’s a great champion.” Turning Stone Casino in New York produced the fight of the year that night!

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