By Phil D. Jay

After a great comeback year by 'The Magic Man,' WBN caught up with IBO cruiserweight champion Antonio Tarver to get his selections on the best of the best in 2011 ahead of the upcoming BoxingScene and WBN Awards.

Fighter of the Year: Andre Ward - Unified WBA/WBC titles at 168-pounds. Overall winner of the Super Six tournament with tourney wins over Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Arthur Abraham and Carl froch.

Fight of the Year: Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto - April 2011, both fighters down and Ortiz winning twelve round decision to capture the WBC welterweight title.

Knockout of 2011: Nonito Donaire vs. Fernando Montiel - February 2011, Donaire unifies bantamweight titles with crushing one punch knockout of Montiel.

Trainer of the Year: Virgil Hunter (Andre Ward's trainer)

Comeback of 2011: Antonio Tarver (of course) and he gave recognition to junior middleweight James Kirkland for getting his career on track after a shocking first round knockout loss to Nobuhiro Ishida. Kirkland returned to stop highly regarded Alfredo Angulo.

Phil D. Jay covers boxing for worldboxingnews.net