By Jake Donovan

Hernan “Tyson” Marquez is going to be a popular young man come year-end awards time.

Nearly eight months after throwing down with Luis Concepcion in what remains the leading candidate for Fight of the Year, their highly anticipated rematch proved to be just as dramatic – just nowhere nearly as competitive.

Adding his name to the Knockout of the Year and perhaps Fighter of the Year categories, Marquez lived up to his “Tyson” nickname, scoring three knockdowns en route to a first round stoppage in their main event Saturday evening in Hermosillo, Mexico.

Despite suffering three knockdowns in their unforgettable war this past April, it was the visiting Concepcion who came out intent on making a statement. Decked out in his native Panama’s red, white and blue, the free swinging flyweight charged forward, launching right hands in the directions of Marquez’ seemingly inviting chin.

It’s hard to fault Concepcion for wanting to engage with a fighter who already knocked him out. With his last nine fights ending inside the distance (including Saturday’s result), it’s clear that Concepcion doesn’t know how to fight any other way.

The thing is, neither does Marquez.

Prior to getting drilled by his in-ring rival, what may have hindered Concepcion’s momentum was time being called less than a minute into the fight in order to have loose tape on his glove tended to before allowing action to continue.

It was all Marquez from that point onward. The southpaw miss with his left hand, the weapon of choice leading to all three knockdowns.  

Concepcion – who managed to drop Marquez in the opening round of their first fight while hitting the deck himself – quickly once again found himself on the canvas, when a series of lefts sent him down for an eight count. The Panamanian attempted to gather his senses, but another overhand left had him loopy, with the ropes breaking his fall in correctly being ruled a knockdown.

Marquez was just getting warmed up, or at least saving up for a big finish. Two more left hands crashed down on Concepcion’s chin, the second of the two putting him down and out. The referee waved off the bout on the spot, sensing that the fallen fighter had taken enough punishment.

The celebration immediately began for Marquez, who has enjoyed a hell of a 2011 campaign, and one that couldn’t have come at a better time.

The win is his fifth straight – all by knockout – as he improves to 32-2 (28KO). Concepcion has now lost two of his last three as he falls to 23-3 (18KO).

Marquez’ first win over Concepcion netted him an alphabet flyweight title, some nine months after suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Nonito Donaire one weight class higher.

Sandwiched in between his twice knocking out Concepcion is a third round knockout over Filipino contender Edrin Dapudong.

All told, seven knockdowns scored in three knockout wins – all coming against Top 10 competition – in a year where not much else has happened, it’s tough to argue that Marquez doesn’t at the very least warrant consideration as the standout performer of 2011.

For the moment, he and Concepcion remain in the lead for Fight of the Year after their unbelievable war in Panama this past April. Both fighters were floored in the opening round, and spent the next 10 rounds beating the crap out of one another. Marquez provided the significant margin of difference, scoring two more knockdowns before putting away Concepcion in the 11th round of a fight that had fans all over the world scouring video upload sites the moment the buzz hit the message boards.

With Saturday’s win, Marquez is a strong candidate for landing on the right end of Knockout of the Year as well.

Still in queue in regards to the Fighter of the Year race is the Super Six finals between Andre Ward and Carl Froch. With no clear cut candidate to give the award, many experts have viewed that fight as the deciding factor in that race.

A strong case can be made for Froch, having endured the tougher challenge in outpointing Glen Johnson this past June. Ward’s entrance into the finals was all but served on a platter, easily outpointing badly declining Arthur Abraham, who proved to be way out of his element over the course of the tournament – both in class and weight.

With that in mind, a win by Froch will make it tough to argue that anyone else will get the nod, as notoriety often factors into the final decision when results alone aren’t enough to make the call. A Ward win would have to come in amazingly spectacular fashion to warrant that level of consideration.

If not, then there stands a good chance that experts rewind to what took place on Saturday night in reconsidering the proper choice.

One way or another, even with this most likely being his last fight of the year, expect to hear Hernan “Tyson” Marquez’ name being repeatedly mentioned as we inch closer towards awards season.

Almost lost in the shuffle was the evening’s co-feature, in which David Sanchez (15-2, 12KO) soundly outpointed Francisco Rosas (22-10-2, 13KO) in their eight-round bantamweight fight.

Sanchez was in control throughout, flooring Rosas in the opening round and frustrating the journeyman enough to cause him to foul. His bad habits caught up to him in the fourth round, when he was docked a point for excessive low blows. It proved to be moot as he stood no chance of winning, anyway.

If there was a downside to Sanchez scoring his fifth straight win, it’s that he was forced to go to the scorecards. The points win was his first of such variety in nearly 2 ½ years. He has twice lost decisions over that stretch, while racking up nine knockouts.

The show aired live on TV Azteca.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of krikya360.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.