As we close out a rather lackluster 2015, from here until the end of the year we will be unveiling the best of the year for Boxing360.com. In this first one we will write about what we believe was the Upset of the Year. The boxing landscape wasn’t what we expected this year and truthfully, there wasn’t many match-ups where the odds were all that even. We want to believe that Mayweather Jr vs Pacquiao, Alvarez vs Cotto and Gennady vs Lemiuex were more of an even face-offs but those in the know knew who truly were the favorites.
Ukranian Viktor Postol dominating the popular Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse was an early contender to take the prize but analyzing the match-up, there was a strong argument for Postol, who is trained by Freddie Roach, to be the favorite between the two. Taller, a bit sharper and with a better boxing skill set, it was just a matter if Postol would be able to withstand Matthysse’s aggressive onslaught.
He did.
Add a knockout in the tenth and that ended Matthysse’s run towards the WBC light welterweight title for the second time in his career. Since then Matthysse has mentioned he will possibly move up to the welterweight division while nobody has called out Postol despite being the new crowned champ.
The other candidate was between undefeated cruiserweight Krysztof Glowacki and long-reigning champ WBO champ Marco “Kapt’n” Huck. Huck, who despite being Serbian has campaigned mostly in Germany, was in his first fight in the United States back in August at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. As a matter of fact, Glowcki of Poland was also and he made a better showing of it. Huck sent him to the canvas in the sixth and when it looked as if Huck was going to retain his title and have a successful U.S. debut all in one night, Glowacki promptly knocked him out in the eleventh. At the time of the stoppage, Huck was ahead on all the cards.
The Upset of the Year though goes to one Brit gypsy by the name of Tyson Fury. The six-foot nine-inch undefeated heavyweight did enough to crown himself the nearly undisputed heavyweight champion with a unanimous decision over none other than Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko had not tasted defeat in eleven years and in the process had captured the IBF, WBO and WBA titles as well as a couple of other minor ones along the way. Klitschko reigned supreme in the division with some even mentioning him as one of the top pound for pound best.
The actual fight wasn’t much to talk about. Klitschko averaged about four punches a round and Fury didn’t do much more but he did enough to win the rounds and take the decision. It was more of Klitschko losing the fight than Fury winning it but he did and changed the course of the division.
Since the fight Fury was stripped of the IBF title and now highly ranked Charles Martin and Vyacheslav Glazkov will meet for the title in early January. With Fury holding the WBO and WBA straps, Deontay Wilder the WBC, we will actually see yet another heavyweight champ in early 2016, something we haven’t seen in years.
