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A New Year begins like the old year. Slowly. But every year between the ropes offers surprises that in 2012 created late momentum and an appetite for more in the next one.

Here are thirteen reasons to fear, love and maybe laugh at 2013:

Andre Ward. News Thursday about his plans for shoulder surgery casts an early pall on the New Year. Ward’s fight with Kelly Pavlik, postponed once and tentatively re-scheduled for Mar. 2, has been cancelled. Ward, a leading pound-for-pound contender, is the face of an emerging generation. He said he hopes to fight twice next year. The business needs to see him more than once.

The super-bantamweights. All of the leadership figures to come from an often forgotten weight class. Nonito Donaire is providing it in his willingness to undergo enhanced drug testing conducted by VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association). In the wake of widespread public suspicions planted by cyclist Lance Armstrong’s elaborate scheme to cheat the testing network, it’s what athletes in every sport should do. Meanwhile, Abner Mares’ voice grows louder with pressure on his promoter, Golden Boy, to make the fight with the Top Rank-promoted Donaire.

Promotional peace. Peace on earth is a better bet, but rapper 50 Cent is in a good position to broker a cease fire in the tired feud between Top Rank and Golden Boy. Who would have ever thought that a rapper would appear to be more reasonable than Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer? But 50 Cent’s pragmatic approach and style suggest that he can get things done. It’s more than noteworthy that 50 Cent, named Curtis Jackson on his promotional license, got super-featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa out of contractual limbo and into a fight on Dec. 8 on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao card. It was promoted by Top Rank, which had sued Gamboa in a move that could have put him on legal ice for years.

Gennady Golovkin. The most intriguing fighter of 2012 becomes the most avoided one in 2013, but the Kazakhstani’s patience and HBO’s interest in him make the middleweight a Fighter of the Year contender in 2014.

Juan Manuel Marquez. He cashes in on the momentum of his knockout of Manny Pacquiao with one, maybe two, fights and then retires.

Pacquiao. The Filipino Congressman deliberates retirement for several months and then decides to fight late in the year with a bout that also serves as a fund raiser for his next political campaign. But Marquez’ crushing right hand on Dec. 8 haunts him, leaves him tentative and robs him of the instinctive aggressiveness that made him so popular for so long. He retires.

Buboy Fernandez. After his MMA-like kick of a Getty Images photographer trying to get shots of a fallen Pacquiao on Dec. 8, the Pacquaio friend and cornerman is ordered to spend a year working for UFC Generalissimo Dana White.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. He looks impressive in beating Robert Guerrero. He then calls out Pacquiao, who does what the public began to do about a year ago. He yawns, moves on and beyond a fight that never was.

HBO’s 24/7. Mayweather hires his dad, Floyd Mayweather Sr., as his trainer and fires him during an expletive-filled flare-up during the series’ second episode.

Al Haymon. The business’ most powerful advisor doesn’t get quoted.

Miguel Cotto. He fights once more. Canelo Alvarez beats him. He retires.

Jonathon Banks. He becomes Deontay Wilder’s rival as America’s latest heavyweight hope. Pressure builds for a Banks-Wilder showdown.

Wladimir Klitchsko. The heavyweight king announces that he’ll leave the Euro zone and re-enter the U.S. market in a bout against the Banks-Wilder winner. If it’s Banks, an interesting story line develops. Banks, Klitschko’s sparring partner, was also Klitschko’s trainer after Emanuel Steward died on Oct 25.

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