2021 Trainer of the Year: Eddy Reynoso

2021 Upset of Year: Kambosos toppling Lopez to take lightweight crown stands out in crowded field of stunners

Jan 07, 2022

A quick note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: If you have upgraded to a paid subscription, thank you! If you have not, please consider doing so to receive the most content. A paid subscription is also your way of keeping this reader-supported newsletter going and supporting independent journalism.

In a year in which pound-for-pound king and 2021 fighter of the year Canelo Alvarez made history by becoming the first undisputed super middleweight champion in a methodical march to claiming all four belts in 11 months — including winning the final two in one-sided knockouts of Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant — the man who guided him there, Eddy Reynoso, deserves a lot of the credit.

So, even if Alvarez was his only fighter it would have been an easy call to pick Reynoso as the trainer of the year. But while Alvarez is obviously Reynoso’s most significant boxer, he also did tremendous work with several other top fighters in 2021.

Last January, he guided lightweight star Ryan Garcia to a career-best win, a resounding one-punch, body-shot knockout of Luke Campbell to claim an interim belt.

In February, Reynoso led unbeaten former featherweight titlist and underdog Oscar Valdez to a huge victory over Miguel Berchelt to claim the WBC junior lightweight title by 10th-round knockout — the KO of the year. Then Valdez won a close decision in a defense against then-unbeaten Robson Conceicao in September.

In May, Reynoso had his first fight working with former unified heavyweight titlist Andy Ruiz Jr., who returned from a 17-month layoff after losing the belts in his rematch with Anthony Joshua to outpoint former title challenger Chris Arreola.

Reynoso also continued his work with Cuban heavyweight up-and-comer Frank Sanchez, who scored a pair of wins, including a very significant decision victory over then-unbeaten top prospect and 2016 Nigerian Olympian Efe Ajagba in what was seen as an even match.

Honorable mentions: SugarHill Steward, Ben Davison, Derrick James, Anatoly Lomachenko, Brian McIntyre

Upset of the Year: Kambosos W12 Lopez

It was truly was the year of the upset with many notable stunners, but one stood out in a crowded field.

When unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. finally met on Nov. 27 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York in their long-delayed mandatory bout, one thing had remained the same from the moment the fight was ordered — that Lopez was a massive favorite.

Not only was Lopez supposed to win, he was expected to do so very easily in his hometown. Most thought the fight would be a one-sided wipeout that would last only a few rounds. Indeed, Lopez took it to Kambosos in the opening round gunning for the quick KO. But Kambosos stood up to the shots and with about 15 seconds left in the round he nailed Lopez with a right hand to knock him down.

Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) had made his point that he wasn’t going anywhere. He and Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) fought tooth and nail, but it was Kambosos who, despite suffering his own knockdown in the 10th round, ground out a split decision win — 115-111 and 115-112 with one judge scoring it 114-113 for Lopez — in the bloody, action-packed candidate for fight of the year.

“I believed in myself, I backed myself and I said it time after time. You might not believe it, but I believed in myself,” an ecstatic Kambosos said in the ring after a victory that shocked everybody but him. “Look at me now! I’ve got all of the jewels.”

Other shockers

2. Kiko Martinez KO6 Kid Galahad (Nov. 13 at Sheffield, England)

Former junior featherweight world titlist Martinez, viewed by most as long past his best days, was hand picked for Galahad’s first featherweight title defense in a homecoming fight. It was supposed to be an easy night for Galahad, who dominated the first four rounds. But in the final seconds of the fifth round Martinez landed a hard sweeping right hand across Galahad’s face for a hard knockdown and on the first and only punch of the sixth round he landed another tremendous right hand that flattened Galahad in a stunner to end his three-month title reign.

3. Mauricio Lara KO9 Lara-Warrington I (Feb. 13 at London)

Warrington, then undefeated, had recently vacated his featherweight world title but was widely viewed as No. 1 in the division when he faced the obscure Lara, a hand-picked Mexican expected to be fodder. It turned out the only fodder in the ring that night was Warrington, who outboxed Lara for the first three rounds before the fight ended for all intents and purposes in the fourth round when Lara rocked him with a hook left from which he never recovered. Moments later, under a hail of shots, Lara dropped Warrington, who was all but out. The fight could have easily been stopped at any point after the knockdown. Lara dished out considerable punishment until finally finishing the unsteady Warrington with another big left hook in the ninth round.

4. Sandor Martin W10 Mikey Garcia (Oct. 16 at Fresno, Calif.)

Spain’s unknown Martin was supposed to be a prop, just a guy on the other side of the ring for four-division titlist Garcia to bat around for a few rounds to get a tune-up win in following a 19-month layoff before moving on to a potential major fight with Regis Prograis. Everything was set up for Garcia to win the welterweight fight. He made Martin come up in weight to meet him at a catch weight of 145 pounds. Garcia’s purse was $1.5 million and Martin was thrown $150,000. When the purse disparity is that great you know who is supposed to win. But a funny thing happened on the way to the pre-ordained result — Martin, with no resume to speak of, boxed the fight of his life against a lethargic, uninspired Garcia and came away with a massive upset by majority decision, 97-93, 97-93 and 95-95.

5. Gabriel Rosado KO3 Bektemir Melikuziev (June 19 at El Paso, Texas)

Rosado, a former middleweight world title challenger, who had become a gatekeeper, got dropped with a combination late in the first round and was losing badly to the highly touted super middleweight prospect from Uzbekistan. But then Rosado came up with a home run punch. He landed a clean right hand on the chin for a knockout of the year contender that dropped Melikuziev face first for the count.

6. Yordenis Ugas W12 Manny Pacquiao (Aug. 21 at Las Vegas)

Pacquiao was supposed to challenge unified welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr. and Ugas was supposed to defend his title against Fabian Maidana in the co-feature. But when Spence and Maidana both suffered injuries about two weeks before the fight, Pacquiao and Ugas agreed to fight each other. Pacquiao, one of the absolute all-time legends of boxing, was the heavy favorite despite being 42 and coming off a two-year layoff. But Ugas used a strong and accurate right hand and jab and avoided Pacquiao’s big shots to topple him by unanimous decision, 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113, and send boxing’s only eight-division champion into retirement.

7. Masamichi Yabuki TKO10 Kenshiro Teraji (Sept. 22 at Kyoto, Japan)

Teraji, making his 10th junior flyweight title defense and even garnering consideration for the pound-for-pound rankings in some quarters, was taking on lightly regarded Japanese countryman Yabuki, whom he had in trouble in the ninth round. But Yabuki survived and landed a flurry of punches in the next round to stop Teraji. Yabuki was ahead 88-83, 87-84 and 86-85 at the time of surprising ending.

8. Leigh Wood TKO12 Xu Can (July 31 at Brentwood, England)

Few considered England’s Wood a serious threat to China’s Xu, who was making the third defense of his secondary featherweight belt. But Wood pulled the upset by outfighting him all the way. Wood led 107-102, 107-102 and 106-103 as they entered the 12th round, but he did not leave it to the judges. He nailed Xu with a clean right hand on the chin to drop him to his rear end and then battered him along the ropes in the follow-up attack until the referee waved it off.

Reynoso photo: Michelle Farsi/Matchroom Boxing; Kambosos-Lopez, Martin-Garcia photos: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing; Martinez-Galahad, Warrington-Lara, Wood-Can photos: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Rosado-Melikuziev photo: Sye Williams/Golden Boy; Pacquiao-Ugas photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Yabuki-Teraji photo: Naoki Fukuda

To upgrade your subscription please go here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe

Fight Freaks Unite