Are frontrunners for KO and Fight of Year in line for Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford?

Within minutes, the frontrunners for Knockout of the Year and Fight of the Year transpired inside a 575-mile radius of the southwestern U.S. as Angelo Leo and Vergil Ortiz Jr. prevailed on an unexpected and fine night for boxing.

Reflecting on those events on Monday’s Pro Box TV’s “Top Stories,” former world titleholders Chis Algieri, Paulie Malignaggi and Timothy Bradley Jr. discussed the bouts and what follows them.

Knowing that Japan’s four-division champion and pound-for-pound elite Naoya Inoue is heading to the featherweight division in 2025, Malignaggi said Leo’s timing was sublime in delivering a brilliant left hand to belt holder Luis Alberto Lopez’s chin in the 10th round, producing a shocking knockout.

“Anytime you have the momentum of a big win, a big knockout … he’s certainly in the Inoue sweepstakes,” Malignaggi said. “[Leo] is an [Inoue] target. Leo is the perfect candidate looking the way he is.”

By winning the IBF featherweight belt in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Leo (25-1, 12 KOs) showcased how fundamentally sound he is, said Bradley.

“The way he set up this punch was catch-and-shoot – he knew Lopez’s opposite hand was going to drop when he shoots his shot,” Bradley said. “That is a common mistake by many fighters today. It was a perfectly placed shot on the chin.”

Ortiz, meanwhile, surprisingly never delivered the knockout blow that had come in each of his prior 21 fights. Still, he overcame two knockdowns and emerged with a majority decision victory over Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk in Las Vegas.

“Super-fun fight. Two guys very hungry in a deep division,” Algieri said, praising Ortiz’s performance down the stretch and ability to showcase new strengths.

“I had Vergil winning a close fight with big implications, but Bohachuk showed he’s a player in the division, too. He showed his class.”

Malignaggi was transfixed.

“What a fight! Dynamite, explosive combinations – they made it what we expected and more,” he said. “Ortiz going down twice. Bohachuk being that guy … man, he is strong. Crazy power, great chins. I want to see it again.”

Bradley is pushing hard for an instant rematch, insisting, “Bohachuk did enough to win … the two knockdowns [in the first and eighth rounds], and I thought he clearly won rounds in between. The wrong guy didn’t get the decision.

“Bohachuk out-fought, out-positioned, outworked Ortiz. Yes, Ortiz was more explosive, but a lot of those shots didn’t land. Run it back, boys.”

It might not be so easy, especially with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh saying before and after the fight that he wants Ortiz to fight new four-division champion Terence Crawford next.

Malignaggi put Alalshikh in his place for speaking about that bout before Ortiz and Bohachuk ever threw a punch.

“With all due respect, you are not making tune-up fights. [Alalshikh] started talking about Ortiz-Crawford and disregarded Bohachuk like he’s a tune-up,” said Malignaggi, noting how Alalshikh should already know from the cases of his beaten heavyweights Deontay Wilder and Jared Anderson that upsets happen.

“You can’t script this. You’ve seen for yourself.”

Malignaggi said the focus on Ortiz-Crawford is nonsensical given how competitive Ortiz-Bohachuk was.

“Bohachuk-Ortiz 2 would be a better fight. Bohachuk-Ortiz 2 is the fight to make,” he said.

Given that he believed Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) won, Bradley agreed.

“There’s business that still needs to be done – an automatic rematch, I believe,” Bradley said. “Bohachuk got jobbed.”

That said, if Saudi funds are backing a Crawford-Ortiz fight, then it’s likely a case of “follow the money, Bradley said. “Fighters will follow the money, and the money is too damn good.”

Ortiz trainer Robert Garcia told BoxingScene that his fighter could return in February, when Alalshikh is planning another Riyadh Season card in Saudi Arabia.