Fight of the Year List: 1950 to Current Year

[Flickergrab98]

Basically a list of the best fight from every year as a follow up to my original thread about the topic. This time I’m making a formalized list starting from the 50’s since that’s the first decade where it became easy to find footage of most of the significant fights and even the lesser known ones. Link to the Wikipedia article for Ring ****zine’s Fight of the Year is up at the top if you want to make your own. This list isn’t permanent and will update if I see a fight that changes my mind.
Time to create our ideal Fight of the Year list.
Replacements are marked with a *
1950s

• 1950 – KO 15 II
• 1951 – Sugar Ray Robinson TKO 13 Jake LaMotta VI*
• 1952 – I
• 1953 – II
• 1954 – II
• 1955 – KO 12 II
• 1956 – KO 9 II
• 1957 – W 15 I
• 1958 – Archie Moore KO 11 Yvon Durelle I*
• 1959 – Gaspar Ortega W 10 Benny Paret I*

1960s

• 1960 – KO 5 II
• 1961 – Floyd Patterson KO 6 Ingemar Johansson III*
• 1962 – **** Tiger W 10 Henry Hank*
• 1963 –
• 1964 – I
• 1965 – Fighting Harada W 15 Éder Jofre I*
• 1966 – W 15
• 1967 – W 15 I
• 1968 – W 10 Frankie DePaula
• 1969 – KO 7 I

1970s

• 1970 – KO 12 I
• 1971 – I
• 1972 – KO 14
• 1973 – Muhummad Ali W 12 Ken Norton II*
• 1974 – Roberto Durán KO 11 Esteban DeJesús II*
• 1975 – III
• 1976 – KO 5
• 1977 – Matthew Saad Muhammad KO 12 Marvin Johnson I*
• 1978 – Larry Holmes W 15 Ken Norton*
• 1979 – KO 15

1980s

• 1980 – Roberto Durán W 15 Sugar Ray Leonard I*
• 1981 – I
• 1982 – UD 15 IV
• 1983 – W 12 II
• 1984 – Jung-Koo Chang TKO 9 Katsuo Tokashiki*
• 1985 –
• 1986 – Evander Holyfield W 15 Dwight Muhummad Qawi I*
• 1987 – W 12
• 1988 – W 12 I
• 1989 – W 12

1990s

• 1990 – Chris Eubank TKO 9 Nigel Benn I*
• 1991 – James Toney D 12 Mike McCallum I*
• 1992 – I
• 1993 – I
• 1994 – KO 9 I
• 1995 – KO 7
• 1996 – I
• 1997 – Ike Ibeabuchi W 12 David Tua*
• 1998 – W 10 I
• 1999 – W 12 I

2000s

• 2000 – I
• 2001 – W 10
• 2002 – W 10 I
• 2003 – James Toney W 12 Vassiliy Jirov*
• 2004 – Manny Pacquiao D 12 Juan Manuel Márquez I*
• 2005 –
• 2006 – TKO 10
• 2007 – Kelly Pavlik TKO 7 Jermain Taylor I*
• 2008 – W 12 III
• 2009 – I

2010s

• 2010 – Amir Khan W 12 Marcos Maidana*
• 2011 – Delvin Rodriguez MD 10 Pawel Wolak*
• 2012 – IV
• 2013 – W 12
• 2014 – KO 11
• 2015 –
• 2016 – D 12
• 2017 – Srisaket Sor Rungvisai W 12 Román González I*
• 2018 – II
• 2019 – I

2020s

• 2020 –
• 2021 – III
• 2022 – TKO 12
• 2023 – KO 11

[Flickergrab98]

I haven’t been able to get any recommendations FOTY-worthy fights from 1973. It just doesn’t feel right crowning Foreman-Frazier I as the best of ‘73. Feels a bit disrespectful to Frazier, honestly.

[Willie Pep 229]

Fighter appearances:

Only two three-peats, Marciano/Basillio in the 50's!

A whole bunch of repeats! Some won both, some won and lose, but still in the 'fight of the year.'

[Flickergrab98]

Fighter appearances:

Only two three-peats, Marciano/Basillio in the 50's!

A whole bunch of repeats! Some won both, some won and lose, but still in the 'fight of the year.'

That might change in the future depending on what fights I see. Who knows?

[Flickergrab98]

Decided to replace Ramirez-Rosario II with Chang-Tokashiki as FOTY ‘84. Though, I’ve heard Mancini-Bramble is a good one too. We’ll see how that turns out when I get to it.
In the meantime though, I’m curious to see what other people’s lists would be if they had to make one.

[kara]

Decided to replace Ramirez-Rosario II with Chang-Tokashiki as FOTY ‘84. Though, I’ve heard Mancini-Bramble is a good one too. We’ll see how that turns out when I get to it.
In the meantime though, I’m curious to see what other people’s lists would be if they had to make one.

A list on a general year or what year in particular?

[Flickergrab98]

A list on a general year or what year in particular?

Let’s say if you wanted to alter the list of Ring ****zine’s Fight of the Year shown in the Wikipedia page on it just like I have. What changes would you make?

[kara]

Let’s say if you wanted to alter the list of Ring ****zine’s Fight of the Year shown in the Wikipedia page on it just like I have. What changes would you make?

The last decade of so, their picks are a bit political with Golden Boy owning them.

[Flickergrab98]

The last decade of so, their picks are a bit political with Golden Boy owning them.

Which fight choices are you referring to? And what would you replace them with?

[kara]

Which fight choices are you referring to? And what would you replace them with?

2018 for example. They picked Canelo-GGG, when I felt it was easily Lara-Hurd