2008-09 Fight of the Year

[Merlin401]

Nothing is more important than this: the best fight of the year. Twenty years from now when you think of 2008-09 you'll think first of this fight:

Nominees

Riley Cote vs. Eric Godard Oct 14, 2008

Eric Boulton vs. Colton Orr Oct 30, 2008

Donald Brashear vs. Jody Shelley Nov 22, 2008

Daniel Carcillo vs. Derek Dorsett Nov 26, 2008

Aaron Downey vs. Cam Janssen Mar 3, 2009

Wade Belak vs. Donald Brashear Mar 10, 2009


My Pick

Well a fine group of fights here (and half a dozen more than were almost as good too). To me this is really between 3 fights: Boulton-Orr, Belak-Brashear, and Downey-Janssen. Belak-Brashear was the most important fight of the year as it dethroned a co-champ. Brashear has been beaten. But he has never been humbled. Here he got humbled. Lets be fair: the guy fought more wide open than EVER before and looked great this year. But man, did he get blasted.

Janssen-Downey was one of the longest fights I've ever seen. These guys are just energizer bunnies and this was an incredible fight. But personally I thought the greatest fight of them all was: Orr-Boulton. Seriously, that **** had more punches thrown than a Mike Brown season. Orr out-threw Boulton probably 2-to-1, yet Boulton found ways to deliver SERIOUS BOMBS here and there to (IMO) take the decision in a purely wonderful fight.


Previous Winners

2003-04: Chris Simon vs Grant McNeill (Simon vs McNeill Nov 26, 2003)
2005-06: Todd Fedoruk vs Brian McGrattan (Fedoruk vs McGrattan Jan 19, 2006)
2006-07: Eric Godard vs. Derek Boogaard I (Godard vs Boogaard I Jan 9, 2007)
2007-08: Riley Cote vs Shawn Thornton (Cote vs Thornton Oct 27, 2007)

[JKidd]

Bolts and Orr... its one of those rare fights where halfway through, you step back and say, "**** finding out who the winner is, this is an insane fight!"

[caps05]

Didn't want to sound too much like a homer, but Brash getting his face beat in didn't win it for me.

[UKRedWing]

I was a homer and voted for Downey-Janssen. Not only was it an amazing fight, it was an amazing Red Wings fight. Its a rare moment that should be treasured forever.

[Snipes19]

I think it comes down to Cote/Godard and Boulton/Orr.

But I voted for Cote/Godard. I just love toe-to-toe fights like that where it's nothing but quick punches being fired back and forth by both fighters. Very exciting.

Boulton/Orr is a close 2nd though as that was a beauty of a bout also. T2T fights like these two are more FOTY worthy than fights involving TKO's. And Janssen/Downey was a long fight but wasn't nearly as good as Cote/Godard and Boulton/Orr.

[BrianTheAdsFan]

20 years from now as Merlin said, people will remember that Belak knocked Brashear silly.

That and being silghtly biased is why I voted for this fight.

[stevecanuck16]

Orr vs Boulton was an epic slugfest, and in many ways was as surprising as Belak taking down Brashear.

[majew17]

Tough choice but I'll go with Godard/Cote. Would have liked to seen Staubitz/Tootoo be a choice also.

[OneilltheGiant]

Boulton v Orr is my pick.. Great fight between two great fighters..

[Isles4life]

There were some outstanding battles this year. Downey and Janssen refused to quit. Carcillo and Dorsett wouldn't back down from one another in a long, ferocious battle. Godard-Cote was an awesome toe-to-toe scrap.

But for me, Boulton vs. Orr took home the honor. Looking at the matchup I wasn't expecting much of a scrap when they first dropped the gloves, and initially, it didn't look like it would be a particularly memorable fight. But the scrap seemed to get better as it went on longer with both guys putting on a tremendous performance in an epic battle.

[Grittzkey]

Originally Posted by UKRedWing

I was a homer and voted for Downey-Janssen. Not only was it an amazing fight, it was an amazing Red Wings fight. Its a rare moment that should be treasured forever.

Right On.

My vote was a homer vote too, But my secondary vote would of been Belak/Brash

[R.Middleton]

To me it was between Orr and Boulton and the middleweight scrap. But the deciding factor was the size and the power in the punches. So Orr and Boulton is my pick.

[pesadillamal]

Orr - Boulton was amazing. Always thought well of Boulton from his battles with Sandy and he had a good philosophy here, one which required him to take some punches. He stood in there well and threw some solid flush shots back. This was one fight were the switch to the left didn't hurt Colton as he switched up at the 35 second mark of the clip above and landed a couple good ones.

[BStreetBullies]

Shiit, the action in the T2T part of the Godard/Cote bout is just too tough to top, Godard-spaz out included, just an incrediblefight, filled with bombs, haymakers and forearms, all ending in a bomb of a shot from Godard.

IMO, great fights, have great endings, and Godard put the exclamation point on the bout there.

[zoli]

Looks like i am in the minority here but i pick the Brashear-Shelley scrap. The first time i saw it i thought Shelley had the chance to drop Brash but Brashear came back well and ended the fight in a dramatic fashion.

All the fights were awesome but this is my favourite from this season.