What is fight of the year through the first six months of 2023?
There have been several worthy candidates; here are the top 9 along with my selection for No. 1
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The first half of 2023 is in the books and it has been a terrific year for boxing so far, including several strong candidates for fight of the year honors through the first six months.
So which men’s fights are the top contenders? I have your answers as I present the top nine candidates (in chronological order) with my pick for the first-half winner at the end:
Artur Beterbiev TKO8 Anthony Yarde
When/where: Jan. 28 at OVO Wembley Arena in London.
Stakes: Three-belt light heavyweight champion Beterbiev was making his WBO mandatory defense.
The fight: Beterbiev maintained his mark as the only active champion with a perfect knockout percentage (19-0, 19 KOs) and showed yet again that he is one of boxing’s fiercest punchers as he broke down the game and competitive Yarde in a big-time action fight. Yarde had his moments in an enthralling, fast-paced battle, but Beterbiev’s power was ultimately too much as they let it all hang out in this scrap. They were cut and bleeding going into the eighth round but Yarde appeared more tired and worse for the wear, and Beterbiev took advantage. He rocked Yarde with a clean right hand to the head and then immediately dropped him to all fours with a follow-up chopping overhand right.
Yarde looked shaky but made it to his feet at the count of eight as blood streamed down his face from a cut under his left eye that he suffered in the sixth round. When the fight resumed, Beterbiev cracked him with a right and got in one more blow before referee Steve Gray stepped in and stopped it at the behest of Yarde trainer Tunde Ajayi. As it turned out, Yarde was surprisingly leading on two scorecards (68-65 and 67-66) while Beterbiev led 67-66 on the third, but made them irrelevant.