LETS put an end to this discussion by giving the definitive answer.
To claim fighter-of-the-year (FTOY) it seems reasonable that the candidate should have fought more than once as one great showing is inadequate. Next, the quality of the opponents have to be taken into consideration. Beating two opponents lowly ranked is not enough. As importantly, the manner in which the victories were won must be taken into consideration.
To be fair and unbiased, there are two major candidates: Mayweather and Pavlik.
Mayweather, a welterweight, knocked out Hatton who is as good a light welterweight as known to man, and he was awarded a split decision, by judges opinion, against a highly ranked welterweight Oscar De La Hoya.
Pavlik had three impressive victories. He knocked out a hard punching contender Zertuche, months later he went on to knock out Miranda, the media's heir apparent at the time (because the drums in the crowd of public opinion started to beat anxiously for him), and as autumn came he made the white p.c. media wet their pants when he sent one of his ICBM's into the face of the world champion Taylor and crowned himself the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. And on top of that, as has been expressed here already, in true polite society fashion, he did not gloat and brag, he simply went back to work.
Gentlemen, we have our winner: Kelly Pavlik, fighter of the year for 2007!
