Amidst the long hiatus due to the holiday season, Boxingchronicles continues its awards for the year 2009. The next award is Upset of the Year. From time to time you tend to come across a young superstar in the making who seems to be on the expressway to the top of the boxing world, by way of electrifying knockouts and dazzling ring performances. Every now and then, when you least expect it, a guy like that gets blown away in much the same way that he has blown away his previous opponents. Which result in the year 2009 was the most shocking and least expected? One major upset comes to mind. Marco Maidana's TKO win over a broken-willed Victor Ortiz was rather stunning, but the real winner for Upset of the Year is...
Juan Carlos Salgado TKO1 Jorge Linares
WBA super featherweight championship
Many respected fight fans and columnists viewed young Linares as someone special who was up and coming. The kid had the makings of a star and packed quite a wallop along with hand speed. Salgado shockingly derailed the Linares express, but there is still plenty of time for redemption for the 24 year old currently residing in Tokyo, Japan.
Current WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan found himself in the same predicament in 2008, when he was knocked out in similar fashion by Breidis Prescott (a fighter who went on to lose a couple of fights since the big win over Khan). Khan, however, rebounded nicely with a technical decision win over Mexican ring legend Marco Antonio Barrera last March. He also won the title with an impressive unanimous decision win over Andriy Kotelnik in July, followed by a 76 second knockout of previously undefeated Dimitriy Salita last month.
As you can see, others have successfully come back from such low points in their careers. We will see what 2010 has in store for El Niño de Oro.
photo courtesy: fightwriter.com
