Floyd Mayweather had one of the best years of his career in 2013 beating Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez handily and not only won Fight HubTV’s fighter of the year honors, Money May took home the Boxing Writers’ Association of America Sugar Ray Robinson American Fighter of the Year award as well.
Despite having a storied career and never losing in 45 fights, Mayweather has only won the BWAA’s ultimate award once before in 2007. That year Mayweather beat the Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya via split decision and knocked out Ricky Hatton, making him the clear cut winner.
Mayweather’s closest competition this time around for the award was Timothy Bradley who had a tremendous year beating Ruslan Provodnikov in an entertaining slugfest, and then beat Juan Manuel Marquez soundly to push his record to 31-0. Those wins also hushed his doubters who were on his back since his controversial win over Manny Pacquiao in 2012.
Despite there being a chance that Mayweather and Bradley would meet in the ring sometime this year, Bradley opted to resign with Top Rank and land a rematch with Manny Pacquiao—who’s won the BWAA award three times—on April 12.
With no guarantee of a Mayweather bout, Bradley was smart to choose a second meeting with Pacquiao in a fight that guarantees Bradley $6 million and Pacquiao $20.
Mayweather is rumored to face British star Amir Khan for his May 3 fight date at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., in a bout most think he should win easily.
