The Best Fighter ESPY Award (ESPY means Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) was created by the cable television network ESPN and has been presented annually since 2007 to the professional or amateur boxer or mixed martial arts fighter, irrespective of nationality, gender, weight class, or sanctioning body or league, adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year. The award subsumed the Best Boxer ESPY Award, limited exclusively to boxers, which was presented between 1993 and 2006, inclusive.

Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, and the award is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade presented by the American cable television network ESPN to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus months previous. As the similarly-styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), and Academy Award (for film), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included. The host for the 2011 ESPYS is Seth Meyers and the head writer is Jonathan Drubner.

From their inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

LeBron Raymone James (/ləˈbrɒn/; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a sophomore at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. He was selected with the number one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Listed as a small forward, James has set numerous youngest player records since joining the league. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003–04, was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and has been both an All-NBA selection and an All-Star every season since 2005. In 2010, a much-publicized free agency process ended with James signing with the Miami Heat.

James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to consecutive playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2007, the Cavaliers advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2011, James and the Miami Heat advanced to the NBA Finals but lost to the Dallas Mavericks. James has been a member of the USA national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. (born Floyd Sinclair; February 24, 1977) is an American professional boxer. He is a five-division world champion, where he has won eight world titles, as well as the Lineal Championship in three different weight classes. He is a two-time The Ring "Fighter of the Year," winning the award in 1998 and 2007 also won the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) "Fighter of the Year" award in 2007 and Best Fighter ESPY Award 2007, 2008 and 2010. He is undefeated as a professional boxer.

Currently, Mayweather is the WBC Welterweight Champion,WBA (Super) Light Middleweight Champion and recipient of the WBC Diamond belt. He is also rated as the best pound for pound boxer in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, BoxRec, Fox Sports, Yahoo! Sports and About.com.

Mayweather was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., into a family of boxers. His father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., was a former welterweight contender who fought Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard and his uncles, Jeff Mayweather and Roger Mayweather, were all professional boxers, with Roger – Floyd’s current trainer – winning two world championships. Mayweather was born with his mother's last name, but his last name would change to Mayweather shortly thereafter.

Victor Ortiz (born January 31, 1987) is an American professional boxer of Mexican descent. He is a former WBC Welterweight Champion.

He was previously in the light welterweight division, where he held the USBA & NABO titles. Ortiz, with a crowd-pleasing, aggressive style, two-fisted power and boyish charm, was made the 2008 ESPN Prospect of the Year.

He is currently rated as one of the "top three" welterweight boxers in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring,BoxRec.com, and ESPN.

The first loss and the two draws on Ortiz's record are not counted as significant due to the fact the loss came by way of disqualification in the first round for knocking Corey Alarcon cold with an uppercut off a clinch. The first of two draws was a first-round technical draw in January 2007, when Ortiz faced Marvin Cordova Jr., when an accidental head-butt opened a cut on Ortiz's forehead and rendered him unable to continue. The second draw was a controversial one against Lamont Peterson, as ESPN.com and HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman both had it 97-91 in favor for the 23-year-old Ortiz.