In 2024, boxing followers noticed anticipated rematches, historic victories, spectacular performances, and some unimaginable upsets.
Many of the most important boxing occasions final 12 months occurred throughout Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia, the place we noticed Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury combat twice for heavyweight supremacy, and different occasions that helped revitalize the glamour division.
Last 12 months we additionally noticed the youngest undisputed champion in ladies’s boxing, and the introduction of Netflix into the boxing world with the streaming service firm’s first reside boxing occasion. And whereas Jake Paul‘s victory over legendary Mike Tyson was the headliner at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the co-main occasion between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in a rematch of their 2002 bout was one other instantaneous traditional.
And let’s not overlook the KOs. With spectacular stoppages, particularly in title fights, this was most likely essentially the most tough class to choose in our annual best-of-the-year record.
To have a good time the perfect of these fighters and performances, Mike Coppinger and Nick Parkinson decide the game’s better of the 12 months.
Men’s fighter of the 12 months: Oleksandr Usyk
Usyk is our slam-dunk winner for prime honors following the perfect marketing campaign of his Hall of Fame profession.
Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) grew to become the primary undisputed heavyweight champion in practically 25 years when he handed Tyson Fury the first loss of his career in May. The Ukrainian did the job in style, too: he landed 14 unanswered punches in Round 9 and was on the verge of a stoppage victory scoring a knockdown.
The career-best efficiency lifted Usyk to the No. 1 spot in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings. In the December rematch, the Olympic gold medalist left little question with an even clearer unanimous decision victory over Fury, who outweighed Usyk by practically 60 kilos.
The pair of wins cemented Usyk as the best heavyweight of his era. — Coppinger
Women’s Fighter of the Year: Gabriela Fundora
Fundora grew to become the youngest ever undisputed boxing world champion when she gained all 4 main flyweight titles at 22 years previous in November. The historic win additionally made Fundora the standout star of ladies’s boxing in 2024.
After two defenses of the IBF belt earlier within the 12 months, Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) captured the WBC, WBO and WBA titles in an undisputed showdown with Gabriela Celeste Alaniz by seventh-round stoppage in Las Vegas. The Californian, often called the “Sweet Poison,” has stopped seven of her 15 opponents, which is very harmful for ladies’s boxing, and changed Alaniz as ESPN’s No. 1-ranked flyweight.
Fundora’s top (5-foot-9) has proved decisive in fights this 12 months. Gabriela and her older brother, 27-year-old Sebastian Fundora, are the primary brother and sister to carry boxing world titles concurrently, beating out Daniel and Caroline Dubois, after Caroline was promoted to full champion in December. Fundora, one in every of ESPN’s best fighters under the age of 25, has the potential to succeed Amanda Serrano as the most important ladies’s boxing star within the lighter weight lessons.
ESPN’s pound-for-pound No. 1 Claressa Shields (15-0, 3 KOs), who gained heavyweight and lightweight heavyweight world titles in her solely combat of the 12 months, a second-round KO win over Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in July and now has world titles in 5 weight divisions, additionally had a outstanding 12 months, however Fundora’s feat simply edges it. — Parkinson
Men’s combat of the 12 months: Oleksandr Usyk UD12 Tyson Fury
Usyk picks up our different most prestigious decide right here for his instantaneous traditional heavyweight tussle with Fury in May.
Magnitude issues right here, and fights do not come a lot larger than two star boxers laying their undefeated data on the road to find out heavyweight supremacy.
The conflict featured numerous momentum shifts as Fury led the early motion earlier than Usyk turned the tide for good in that pivotal ninth spherical to earn the cut up determination victory.
There have been many difficult-to-score rounds as Fury gained the combat on one scorecard, however Usyk’s superior clear punching together with the 10-8 Round 9 gained him the thrilling combat and the undisputed championship.
The first assembly would all the time show robust to prime, and certainly the December rematch — though it was additionally combat — did not come near matching the May bout by way of motion and leisure worth. — Coppinger
Women’s combat of the 12 months: Katie Taylor UD10 Amanda Serrano
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Katie Taylor edges out Amanda Serrano in controversial determination
Katie Taylor defeats Amanda Serrano to stay undisputed champion at AT&T Stadium.
Taylor’s rematch with Serrano delivered an unimaginable display of women’s boxing within the greatest ladies’s combat ever. As chief assist to social media celebrity Jake Paul’s November win over Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Taylor and Serrano produced an in depth, intense and skillful encounter that was watched by an estimated 74 million reside viewers globally on Netflix.
Taylor prevailed, identical to of their first combat, and as soon as once more the scores have been disputed. What was past doubt was the standard that Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs), 38, and Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs), 36, each confirmed. It was the right advert for ladies’s boxing from two of the perfect on this planet (Taylor is No. 2 and Serrano is No. 3 within the newest ESPN pound-for-pound rankings).
They mixed to throw a staggering 1,263 punches over 10, two-minute rounds. Both had spells of dominance, however they have been arduous to separate in some rounds. Serrano’s 324 punches landed for the combat have been essentially the most by a lady in CompuBox historical past, however Taylor took the choice by scores of 95-94, 95-94 and 95-94 to retain her undisputed junior welterweight titles.
Taylor and Serrano each emerged from the combat as winners, and girls’s boxing can solely have benefited from the publicity the game gained from their efforts. — Parkinson
Men’s KO of the 12 months: Angelo Leo KO10 Luis Alberto Lopez
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Angelo Leo flattens Venado Lopez for KO of the 12 months candidate
Angelo Leo wants one punch to flatten Venado Lopez and declare the IBF belt for the knockout of the 12 months candidate.
This was the hardest choice with so many highlight-reel knockouts to select from. In the top, with little separating the sector, Leo (25-1, 12 KOs) grabs the honour as he gained the title with his brutal KO of Lopez and did in order a serious underdog — Leo was a +350 underdog coming into the combat, in keeping with ESPN BET.
The IBF featherweight title combat was extremely aggressive earlier than Leo separated Lopez from his senses with a single left hook in Round 7. Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) instantly crashed to the canvas flat on his again because the punch linked.
Leo grew to become a champion for the primary time with the percentages stacked towards him, and he did so in fashion. — Coppinger
Men’s upset of the 12 months: Bruno Surace KO6 Jaime Munguia
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Bruno Surace scores gorgeous win over Jaime Munguia in sixth spherical
Bruno Surace in some way comes up with the unimaginable upset of Jaime Munguia through knockout in Round 6.
Munguia, a former junior middleweight champion, was a -2500 favourite per ESPN BET when he entered the ring in December for a routine homecoming combat in Tijuana, Mexico.
Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) was little greater than an afterthought: a light-punching boxer who by no means fought outdoors France with simply 4 knockouts in 27 pro-fights.
There was little to point Surace would supply any resistance in any respect. Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) was rated No. 3 by ESPN at 168 kilos and his lone profession defeat on the time, got here earlier within the 12 months in a decision setback to Canelo Alvarez.
All appeared to go in keeping with plan when Munguia floored Surace in Round 3. But he rose from the canvas and continued to press ahead in his first massive alternative on the large stage. He discovered pay grime in Round 6 when an overhand proper dropped Munguia for the count of 10. The referee’s depend gave the impression to be fast, nevertheless it did not matter: Munguia was clearly in no form to proceed.
Top Rank, which simply signed Munguia in September, deliberate to match him with prime contender Christian Mbilli in 2025. Instead, Munguia will look to actual revenge after he exercised the rematch clause in December for a return bout with Surace. — Coppinger
Men’s prospect of the 12 months: Moses Itauma
Itauma seems to be like a future heavyweight champion following his breakout 12 months.
The Slovakia native who fights out of England competed 4 instances in 2024 — all stoppage victories — and wrapped up honors with a surprising first-round TKO of Demsey McKean on the Usyk-Fury 2 undercard.
McKean is sturdy and represented an enormous step up at school for Itauma. Only he sliced by means of the Australian together with his lightning-quick combos: two knockdowns produced by the overhand left ended issues within the opening spherical.
McKean wasn’t stopped by Filip Hrgovic till Round 12 final 12 months, so it is mightily spectacular that Itauma may make such fast work, particularly in simply his eleventh professional combat.
Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) did not flip 20 till one week after the combat and now that he handed his first litmus take a look at with flying colours, he ought to face stiffer competitors in 2025 earlier than probably difficult for a world title the next 12 months. — Coppinger
Trainer of the 12 months: Robert Garcia
Long thought to be one of many sport’s finest trainers, the previous junior light-weight champion loved one other banner 12 months as a chief second.
His finest pupil, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, delivered his finest marketing campaign but with a seventh spherical, body-shot KO of future Hall of Famer Juan Francisco Estrada in June.
Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) retained his 115-pound title with one other dominant efficiency, a third-round KO of former champion Pedro Guevara in November.
Garcia’s different prime fighter, Vergil Ortiz Jr., did not combat in any respect in 2023 however obtained again on observe final 12 months with three fights, culminating with an exhilarating decision win over Serhii Bohachuk in August. Like Rodriguez did towards Estrada, Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) rose off the canvas to attain the most important win of his profession.
The win propelled Ortiz to his hardest take a look at but, a Feb. 22 showdown with former champion Israil Madrimov.
The 49-year-old additionally trains many promising prospects at his eponymous boxing academy in Southern California. — Coppinger
Manager of the 12 months: Keith Connolly
Connolly is understood in boxing circles because the go-to man to extract prime {dollars} for his fighters. He did maybe his finest work but in 2024 when he in some way secured an eight-figure bundle for Edgar Berlanga to face Canelo Alvarez in September.
Fighters routinely earn career-high paydays for an project with boxing’s prime star, however Berlanga wasn’t the matchup anybody requested for. Yet he nonetheless got here away $ 10 million richer. To land Berlanga the combat, Connolly first negotiated Berlanga’s launch from Top Rank.
Connolly additionally pulled in practically eight figures for Filip Hrgovic throughout a number of fights that culminated in a heavyweight title eliminator loss to Daniel Dubois in June.
Connolly ended the 12 months by including a champion to his steady after Richardson Hitchins defeated Liam Paro.
Now, Connolly is trying to finalize a profitable deal for Conor Benn to lastly face Chris Eubank Jr. within the spring. — Coppinger
