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Tyson Fury named RING Fighter of the Year for 2015

Fighters Network
11
Jan

Tyson Fury, whose stunning upset of Wladimir Klitschko on Nov. 28 breathed energy into a lifeless division, has been named THE RING Fighter of the Year for 2015.

april-ring-coverKlitschko hadn’t lost a fight since 2004 and was seeking the 19th successful defense of his world title, which would’ve equaled the run of Larry Holmes. Fury not only ended the streak but did it a way few could’ve foreseen: The 6-foot-9 behemoth outboxed his smaller opponent to win the RING, IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles in Dusseldorf, Germany.

And it wasn’t close, as Fury shut down the former titleholder for much of the fight. The judges scored it 115-112, 115-112 and 116-111 even though Fury lost a point for rabbit punching. That means he won eight of 12 rounds on two cards and nine on the third.

Fury is the first universally recognized heavyweight champion from the United Kingdom since Lennox Lewis and only the third of all time.



With his victory, Fury also turned boxing’s traditional glamour division upside down. The heavyweights had become largely an afterthought because of the Klitschko brothers’ dominance. Now rising big men like Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Luis Ortiz – combined with Fury and a beatable Klitschko – have made the division interesting again.

Fury stopped Christian Hammer in eight rounds on Feb. 28 in London in his only other fight in 2015.

The other finalists for the award were Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin, Roman Gonzalez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. They all accomplished big things in 2015, but none shook up the sport like Fury did.

In other categories, the winners were:

FIGHT OF THE YEAR

Francisco Vargas KO 9 Takashi Miura

 

KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR

Canelo Alvarez KO 3 James Kirkland

 

ROUND OF THE YEAR

Amir Imam vs. Fidel Maldonado Jr., Round 3

 

UPSET OF THE YEAR

Tyson Fury UD 12 Wladimir Klitschko

 

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Badou Jack

 

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

Joe Gallagher

 

PROSPECT OF THE YEAR

Takuma Inoue

 

EVENT OF THE YEAR

Floyd Mayweather Jr. UD 12 Manny Pacquiao

 

MOST INSPIRATIONAL

Anthony Crolla

 

The 87th Annual RING Awards issue, April 2016, will be on newsstands in mid-February. The digital edition of the magazine will be available next week.

To subscribe to the print or digital versions of the magazines, click on this link. You can also purchase the March 2016 or past issues on that page.

 

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