by David Sauvage

Did boxing have a theme in 2008?

It'd be nice if change were the theme. That was the theme for everything else. But the Klitchkos are still here, alas.

Let's get to it. The top ten stories of 2008:

10. Evander Holyfield Finally Doesn't Capture the Heavyweight Crown

For a decade, Holyfield has been saying he'll be champ again.

Never mind he's forty-six, can't punch and slurs. Never mind there's no such thing as heavyweight champ anymore, unless you count three Eastern European stiffs who capture the public imagination like broken street lamps.

Yet part of every fan wanted Holyfield to upset Nikolai Valuev, the giant softie who'd clumped his way to a title. Had Holyfield been awarded the decision he earned, the fight would have been a farce. That he lost, won but lost, tipped it into absurdity.

9. The Redemption of Nate Campbell

Behold the glorious triumph of experience.

 

Juan Diaz was a whirling dervish with perfect control. He'd taken out Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz to unify three belts when Nate Campbell, good old Nate Campbell, ground him down through sheer technique. It was like watching a teacher show the student there's plenty left to learn.

After a career of promise and disappointment, Campbell has finally done his finest work.

8. The Pseudo-Retirement of Pretty Boy Floyd

Floyd Mayweather in June: "I have decided to permanently retire from boxing… I have finally made up my mind, spoken to my family, particularly my mother, and made my decision."

Leonard Ellerbe, Floyd's manager, in December: "Floyd has given Team Mayweather the green light to go out there and evaluate the biggest fights for him, to come back to him and present it to him."

If Floyd retired, it'd be the premature end of a legendary career. If he un-retired to challenge Manny Pacquiao, it would be huge. Instead, Manny is fighting Ricky Hatton and Floyd is doing nothing. What's left is a shameless act of press-loving narcissism.

You win Floyd. You're a story. Can I have your autograph?

7. Klitchkos in Reruns

Who came out better, boxing fans or the citizens of Kiev, when Vitali Klitchko lost the mayoral election to Leonid Chernovetsky? A victory over Samuel Peter sent the heavyweight division right back to 2004 with the added staleness of repetition.

Wladimir is scheduled to continue his streak of knocking out nobodies and the occasional has-been. At least Vitali is taking a risk with David Haye. That's hopeful, no?

In the heavyweight division, hope may be all we can hope for.

6. Hopkins Executes the Ghost

Bernard Hopkins is a lucid dream. It's unreal, a 43-year old trouncing the middleweight king, but he's in total control.

Remember George Foreman? He was only two years older than B-Hop when he knocked out Michael Moorer. Foreman had retired, searched his soul, found God and patented a grill before a straight right hand won him immortality for his second incarnation.

The Pavlik fight proves Hopkins was immortal all along.

5. Vasquez-Marquez III

Magic in boxing is simply this: two fighters give it everything they got, and no one knows who's got more.

Rafael Marquez had the snappy job and careful footwork. But scrappy Israel Vasquez took and cracked the harder shots. He also delivered the best twelfth-round knockdown since James Toney chopped Vassily Jirov down in 2003's Fight of Year.

Credit to Vasquez for pulling it out, to Marquez for getting up and to Gary Shaw for putting these guys together. Another, Gary? Pretty please.

4. Margarito-Cotto

Max Kellerman is coming into his own. Antonio Margarito, the young HBO commentator said, "out-Cottoed Cotto." That is, he broke Miguel Cotto's will like Cotto breaks wills.

Margarito-Cotto was, like Taylor-Pavlik in 2007, the turning point of 2008. Margarito earns a fight against Shane Mosley, while Paul Williams waits for a second chance to beat him. Cotto follows Jermaine Taylor into boxing purgatory, rehabilitating his career against a lesser foe for half the price.

What about Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton? We can't wait.

3. Calzaghe Makes His Point

There was no reason to doubt Joe Calzaghe after he dominated Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler. Once he out-boxed none other than the master himself, the same Bernard Hopkins who would beat Kelly Pavlik, we accepted we were in the presence of a Great. Capital G.

2. Oscar Quits

Oscar De La Hoya always challenges the man at the top. He is no Everyman, but he is Our Man, trying his best.

Or is he?

Against Trinidad, he started running. Against Mayweather, he stopped throwing. Against Hopkins, he fell so dramatically, it was theater, not sport.

Standing there, absorbing Manny Pacquiao's assaults, it looked like Oscar was hoping

referee Tony Weeks would wave it off.

But nobody would save Oscar. Not Tony Weeks, not trainer Nacho Bernstein, not the Nevada State Athletic Commission. On a night he was completely powerless, Oscar was still the boss.

"Okay?" Nacho asked. "We stop it?"

He needed Oscar's permission.

A nod.

The end.

1. Manny, Manny, Manny, Manny

The best boxer in the world is also the most exciting is also the most popular is also the most humble.

Last year, number one was a self-obsessed man-boy ducking all challengers (save Hatton), sprinkling Benjamin Franklins around Las Vegas and representing our sport by foxtrotting on primetime.

Thank you, Manny Pacquiao. The spot is yours.

Maybe Pacquiao shouldn't have gotten the decision against Juan Manuel Marquez, but fighting his guts out, he deserved the glory that came with it. Against David Diaz and Oscar De La Hoya, he was the most highly concentrated mixture of ferocity, vulnerability and poise since a young Marco Antonio Barrera.