The Best Fighter ESPY Award was an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of

combat sport A combat sport, or fighting sport, is a competitive contact sport that usually involves one-on-one combat. In many combat sports, a contestant wins by scoring more points than the opponent, submitting the opponent with a hold, disabling the oppon ...

s. The Best Fighter ESPY Award trophy was presented to the

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

boxer or

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It was first awarded as part of the

ESPY Award An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

s in 2007, subsuming the

Best Boxer ESPY Award The Best Boxer ESPY Award is presented annually to the professional or amateur boxer, irrespective of nationality, adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year. Active between 1993 and 2006, the Best Boxer ESPY Award was subsumed from 2007-2 ...

until 2019, when the Best MMA Fighter ESPY Award was established, and the ESPY Awards began awarding boxers and mixed martial arts fighters separately. Balloting for the award was undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It was conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months. The inaugural winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award was American

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

champion

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (''né'' Sinclair; February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer. He currently owns a team in the NASCAR Cup Series named The Money Team Racing. As a professional boxer he competed b ...

, who defeated the incumbent category title holder

Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born on February 4, 1973) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championshi ...

two months prior. He is one of two people to have been presented with the award more than once, winning the accolade a total of six times; Mayweather was also nominated in 2015. Filipino boxer

Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He served as a Senator of the Philip ...

has the second most awards won with victories in 2009 and 2011. It has been presented to one woman in its history, American

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

mixed martial arts fighter

Ronda Rousey Ronda Jean Rousey (; born February 1, 1987) is an American professional wrestler, actress, former judoka and mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand and is the current SmackDown Women� ...

in 2015. Between 2007 and 2018, boxers were most successful at the ESPY Awards with nine victories and twenty-four nominations, followed by mixed martial arts with three wins and nineteen nominations.

Winners and nominees

Statistics

References

External links

* {{featured list ESPY Awards Boxing awards Most valuable player awards Awards established in 2007

Winners and nominees

Statistics

See also

References

External links