2009 ESPY Fighter of the Year Award: Pacquiao vs Machida
Posted by cebloggerJul 8
Who will be the Fighter of the Year for the 2009 ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) Awards? Manny Pacquiao or Lyoto Machida?
According to the Wikipedia, the ESPY Awards is an
… annual sports awards event created and broadcast by American cable television network ESPN. Begun in 1993, the event confers eponymous awards, fully styled as Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, for individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given ceremony.[1] As the similarly-styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), and Academy Awards (for film), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.
From their inception until 2004, the awards were chosen variously through voting by fans; sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.
One of the awards to be presented is the Best Fighter ESPY Award. It is presented to the professional boxer or mixed martial arts fighter, irrespective of nationality or weight class, adjudged to be the best in a given year. It used to be a Best Boxer of the Year Award. But with the rising popularity of mixed martial arts, they revised it in 2007. Floyd Mayweather Jr won both the 2007 and the 2008 edition. Oscar De La Hoya took the honors in 2006.
Now it’s 2009 and Manny Pacquaio is nominated along with some of the best mixed martial fighters there is. Most notable of Pacquiao’s achievements are his moves to higher weight class and defeating bigger guys like Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatton. His victories are not even close. He retired Oscar and turned the lights off Hatton in two short rounds.
Who are the other nominees?
Lyoto Machida MMA – is a Japanese-Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter and is currently the Light Heavyweight Champion of UFC. He is undefeated in his MMA career and has notable victories against UFC greats Tito Ortiz, BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, Thiago Silva and recently, Rashad Evans. Machida is I think the closest rival of Pacquiao for this award.
Shane Mosley Boxing – is the current WBA Welterweight Super Champion. He recently clobbered Antonio Margarito despite being a 4-1 underdog. He is reportedly making announcements that he wants to fight Pacquiao next.
Anderson Silva MMA – is the current Middleweight Champion of UFC.
From the looks of it, Manny Pacquiao will take away the honors. Pacman fans all over the world can vote for their hero. I’ll post the voting link later when I see it.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Pacquiao might get this one… I hope so…
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PAC MAN FOR ME 100%
I’m i big fan of Mr. Manny Pacquiao but you can’t change the fact that the award is called “Fighter of the Year Award” and Machida is a great fighter too. I’m voting for Manny Pacquiao but I think the people who are really into the fighting sports will have a hard decision choosing among the nominees. But I’m betting that the award will only be between Manny Pacquiao and Lyoto Machida.