Boxing fans experienced several peaks and troughs in the past year. There was the excitement of the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward superfight, there was the subsequent controversy surrounding its decision, there was tragedy and there were some terrific prizefights and standout performances.

Who and what stood out the most?

Find out when THE RING reveals its annual year-end awards for 2016. The categories: Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year, Trainer of the Year, Upset of the Year, Event of the Year, Comeback of the Year, Round of the Year, Prospect of the Year and Most Inspirational.

Leading up to the announcement, we will give you the five finalists in one category each day. Day 10: Fighter of the Year.

The finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

TERENCE CRAWFORD Crawford remained one of the hottest fighters on the planet with three more impressive victories, including a unanimous-decision wipeout over then-unbeaten Viktor Postol in what some saw as a 50-50 fight. Crawford also beat Hank Lundy and John Molina.

CARL FRAMPTON Frampton started his 2016 campaign by scoring a 12-round split decision, which should have been unanimous, over Scott Quigg. In doing so, he unified two junior featherweight titles before moving up in weight to outpoint WBA 126-pound belt holder Leo Santa Cruz.

ROMAN GONZALEZ The current pound-for-pound king had another good year. He nearly shut out an overwhelmed McWilliams Arroyo and then moved up in weight to face talented titleholder Carlos Cuadras. Gonzalez had to work hard but emerged with a major belt in a fourth weight class.

VASYL LOMACHENKO No one dazzled fans in 2016 more than the gifted Ukrainian, who remained on his impressive run by stopping Roman Martinez and Nicholas Walters in five and seven rounds, respectively. The imposing Walters was so baffled, so frustrated, so beaten down, that he simply quit.

MANNY PACQUIAO Pacquiao isn’t the fighter he once was but he is still getting good results. The eight-division titleholder bounced back from his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015 by outpointing Tim Bradley in their third fight and doing the same against Jessie Vargas seven months later.

THE RING year-end award winners for 2016, including our Fighter of the Year, will be announced tomorrow.

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