Humberto Soto vs Urbano Antillion is ESPN's Fight Of The Year

When Top Rank first put together its Dec. 4 pay-per-view card at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., Julio Cesar Chavez was supposed to headline. But when he came down with the flu and dropped out a week before the show the lineup was suddenly shuffled.

Top Rank moved Nonito Donaire's bantamweight fight with Wladimir Sidorenko into the main event slot, but the lineup was changed again at the last minute. Because of international television contract considerations, Donaire-Sidorenko was moved to the co-feature slot and the undercard fight between lightweight titlist Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon was bumped up to top the bill.

By the time Soto and Antillon had finished a brutal, back-and-forth slugfest, it was clear they had not only waged a fight more than worthy of being a main event, they had produced the 2010 ESPN.com fight of the year.

Sure, the card had lost the star power of Chavez, but the 3,253 who decided to keep their tickets, and those who anted up for the pay-per-view, more than got their money's worth as Soto and Antillon put on a scorching fight for all 12 rounds.

Soto eked out a unanimous decision -- 115-112, 114-113, 114-113 -- to retain his 135-pound belt for the third time, but the result almost didn't matter, as both fighters raised their stock in a tremendous battle.

The blueprint for how the fight was going to go was set almost immediately, as Antillon, more brawler than boxer, went right at Soto to try to drag him into a war. Soto, the more skilled fighter, would have preferred a bit of a chess match, but Antillon set a furious pace. He was all over Soto with power punches and body shots. Soto had no choice but to stand his ground and fight back.

The opening stanza was not even half over and the action was already intense.

"This is a sizzling first round," said broadcaster Rich Marotta, unaware that virtually every round was going to be just as sizzling.

They sustained the action in the second round, and in the third round, one of the best of 2010, the fight boiled over into a pier-sixer. Antillon, exerting massive pressure, was firing head shots and body blows and Soto was answering with counter shots and uppercuts.

"Somewhere up there Diego Corrales is looking down on this fight and smiling," Marotta said, invoking the name of the late, great action star who was known for being in hard-hitting fights.

When the terrific third round ended, blow-by-blow man Nick Charles was dead on with his assessment: "There is no letup from either man through three rounds. Nine sensational minutes!"

And it would only get better.

Referee Ray Corona, who had little to do for the most part other than watch the searing action as they pulverized each other, did get into the act in the fourth round when he warned Antillon for a low blow and then docked him a critical point in the fifth round for a borderline low blow.

What's a great fight without some blood? We got that too as an accidental head-butt opened a cut over Antillon's right eye in the sixth round.

But blood be damned. They continued to tear into each other. Mexico's Soto crushed Antillon, a fellow Mexican living in Maywood, Calif., with uppercuts, but Antillon walked through them to land thudding body shots. There were so many heated exchanges, it looked like a video game at times.

The ebb and flow was wonderful. The fight was nip and tuck all the way.

When Antillon hammered a tiring Soto at the end of the 11th after rallying from some tough moments earlier in the round, Marotta was in awe.

"There's blood dripping from Antillon's eye! What a fight, man! This is what it's all about," he exclaimed.

The fight appeared on the table in the 12th round and they fought like it, finishing the final few seconds in the middle of the ring, teeing off on each other.

"Fight to the finish," Charles said when the final bell sounded. "That was really a thrilling fight."

After the fight, the fighters knew they had just been in a special one.

"I think tonight the winners here were the fans," Soto said. "I think it was a great fight. Both of us [fought] our hearts out."

Said Antillon: "The crowd is pretty happy with the fight, so we're all winners here."

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum gave his guys credit. "We knew going in this would be a great fight and both guys proved to be tremendous warriors," he said.

So tremendous that a rematch is in the works for May. Fight of the year 2011, anyone?

Previous winners
2009 Juan Manuel Marquez KO9 Juan Diaz
2008 Israel Vazquez W12 Rafael Marquez (III)
2007 Israel Vazquez TKO6 Rafael Marquez (II)
2006 Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mahyar Monshipour
2005 Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo (I)
2004 Marco Antonio Barrera W12 Erik Morales (III)
2003 Arturo Gatti W10 Micky Ward (III)
2002 Micky Ward W10 Arturo Gatti (I)
2001 Micky Ward-Emanuel Burton
2000 Felix Trinidad TKO12 Fernando Vargas

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=5971552

Just watched it there and it was a good fight but I thought Khan-Maidana was better. That could be because I already knew the outcome though and because Khan's chin kept me on edge the whole time.

It was a very good fight, but Khan-Maidana and Calderon-Segura had more excietment IMO. Soto-Antillon, Kessler-Froch, Marquez-Katsidis, Khan-Maidad and Segura-Calderon were all great fights. I dont think theres one that seperates from the other very much, so the pick isnt so unanimus like the past FOTYs in recent years.

Khan vs Maidana was exhilarating for me because I was on the edge of my seat all night. I almost passed during the tenth round.

Ali wrote:Khan vs Maidana was exhilarating for me because I was on the edge of my seat all night. I almost passed during the tenth round.

LMAO, I bet. I did think that was superior to Antillon-Soto. Soto controlled most the fight, Khan vulnerability is why that fight was so great. I still prefered Calderon-Segura.

I've still yet to see Soto vs Antillion or Calderon vs Segura so I can't really say if they're better fights or not, but Khan vs Maidana was by far the most exciting fight I watched last year.

Kessler vs Froch was entertaining and so was Burns vs Martinez.

Lopez vs Marquez was a great fight but Rafael kinda ruined it by pulling out with the injury.

Ali wrote:I've still yet to see Soto vs Antillion or Calderon vs Segura so I can't really say if they're better fights or not, but Khan vs Maidana was by far the most exciting fight I watched last year.

Kessler vs Froch was entertaining and so was Burns vs Martinez.

Lopez vs Marquez was a great fight but Rafael kinda ruined it by pulling out with the injury.

I missed a lot of these FOTY candidates myself. I still need to watch Froch-Kessler, i only watch pieces of it. I only watched Khan-Maidana, Segura-Calderon, and Marquez-Katsidis live. I had to go on youtube to watch Escelante-Roman, Burns-Martinez and Antillon-Soto. Ima watch the whole Froch-Kessler fight tomorrow.

I also enjoyed Perez vs Mares, that's been kinda forgotten about now.

Ali wrote:I also enjoyed Perez vs Mares, that's been kinda forgotten about now.

it is, still a solid fight though.

it was a very good fight, but I felt like the scores should have been wider for Soto (at least I felt it should have been wider).