Cutman of the Year: Phil Mondello

A fight this year didn’t stand-out with a bad cut that could have impacted the fight. We didn’t have a definitive and easy choice in which a corner man stepped in and saved the bout for the fighter as they stopped a dramatic cut.

That being said, I made a homer pick and picked the only cut that I could remember that seemingly went under the radar as for the fact that it was under the radar on the opening fight of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pay-per-view fight card. Manuel “Tino” Avila, who trains out of FightKore International in Martinez, CA, but resides in Fairfield, Ca. In a fight with former U.S. Olympian Joseph Diaz Jr., Avila was cut over his eye from a cut that had lingered injury that had existed.

Mondello went to work and stopped the cut from dramatically changing the fight as a cascade of blood was not seen in any of the photographs from the fight. Mondello, who has not been one for the fame of boxing, did some of the best work of the year in that bout and earned his award as best cut man of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Mike Rodriguez