You could argue Great Britain saved the best for last in terms of terrific action fights staged in 2013. Last night in Leeds, 33-year-old Darlington man Stuey Hall battled his way to the IBF bantamweight title in an incredibly exciting and at times brutal encounter with South African southpaw Vusi Malinga.
Hall, an unlikely world title challenger, fought through the pain and hindrance of a badly busted up left eye to out-point 34-year-old Malinga in a fight that could be argued as the best to have taken place in the UK this year. After decking his man in the 3rd, Hall had to dig deep to see it through to the end. The two warriors went toe-to-toe and inflicted as much hurt as they could on each other. The heart and courage shown by both was truly remarkable.
Marcos “El Chino” Maidana shook up the boxing world as he upset, Adrien “The Problem” Broner over twelve dominating rounds in which he scored two knockdowns and in the process became the new World Boxing Association Champion with an unanimous decision victory by three scorecards of 115-110, 116-109 and 117-109. This competitive and really interesting welterweight bout, which could be considered the upset of the year, was held at the Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas and was televised on Showtime.
After the bell sounded to signify the end of the match, people were cheering, and giving the middle finger to Adrian “The Problem” Broner who had many problems in his first defense of his WBA welterweight title against Marcos “Chino” Maidana.

Joey Abell filled in for injured Sherman Williams on a week’s notice and faced undefeated Pulev in Neubrandenburg, Germany on Dec. 14. The IBF intercontinental title and Pulev’s hard-gained number 1 IBF ranking were at stake.
(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) In a very entertaining scrap, WBA interim Welterweight title holder Keith “One Time” Thurman slugged it out with hard-nosed fight veteran Jesus Soto Karass en route to stopping his fearless challenger in the ninth round of the scheduled twelve round championship contest.
In a clear candidate for “upset of the year” and “fight of the year”, Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KOs) lifted the WBA Welterweight title from Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KOs) in a thrilling twelve round unanimous decision victory.