As we put 2024 in the record books, the BoxingScene team agreed in only one category in the Review of the Year. And that was we were unanimous in deciding that Oleksandr Usyk was Fighter of the Year. His two wins over the previously undefeated and highly formidable Tyson Fury earned him top spot with flying colors, while thrusting him into many a debate about his position in the pantheon of all-time greats.
Also mentioned in that Fighter of the Year list were Artur Beterbiev, Jesse Rodriguez, Daniel Dubois, Naoya Inoue, Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, Junto Nakatani, Oscar Collazo, Nick Ball and Bakhram Murtazaliev.
The Trainer of the Year saw the top two spots claimed by Don Charles and Robert Garcia as the only coaches to pick up votes in a field that included Sergey Lapin, Andy Lee, Brian “BoMac” McIntyre, Marc Ramsey, Paul Stevenson, Rudy Hernandez and South Africa’s Colin Nathan. There was little between Charles, who steered Daniel Dubois to a pair of unlikely victories and the Comeback of the Year and Garcia, for his work with, among others, Bam Rodriguez, Vergil Ortiz and Albert Gonzalez.
The first fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was a runaway winner for Fight of the Year, but I voted for Seiya Tsutsumi’s upset of Takuma Inoue, Eric Raskin called it Raymond Ford-Otabek Kholmatov and Kieran Mulvaney saw it as Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano II. There were plenty of other fights in the mix, and in no order, here is the rundown: Sebastian Fundora-Tim Tszyu; Phumelela Cafu-Kosei Tanaka; Martinez-Ioka I; Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol; Vergil Ortiz-Serhii Bohachuk; Caleb Pant-Trevor McCumby; Frazer Clarke-Fabio Wardley I; Kenshiro Teraji-Carlos Canizales; Tyrone McKenna-Dylan Moran; Vladimir Hernandez-Raul Garcia; Jason Moloney-Saul Sanchez; Derek Chisora-Joe Joyce and Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia.
Knockout of the Year also had a clear winner, with Lucas Bahdi chilling Ashton Sylve. The only other KO to pick up more than one vote was the scary Osleys Iglesias knockout of Evgeny Shvedenko in June, but Angelo Leo’s emphatic removal of Luis Alberto Lopez from his senses, Daniel Dubois wiping out Anthony Joshua, Jesse Rodriguez’s win over Juan Francisco Estrada, Bruno Surace’s right-hand victory over Jaime Munguia all received votes.
Other entrants in the category included Vladimir Hernandez-Guido Schramm, Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin, Brian Norman-Giovani Santillan, Shokichi Iwata-Jairo Noriega, Zhilei Zhang Zhang-Deontay Wilder, Ekow Essuman-Owen Cooper, Terrence Williams-John Ariel Sosa, Brad Strand-Marvin Solano, Martin Bakole-Jared Anderson, Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou and Weljon Mindoro-Lucas de Abreu.
There was just a single vote between the top two in the Round of the Year category, and the entire team was split. In the end, the first round of Abdullah Mason-Yohan Vasquez eked out a split decision win over the classic ninth round between Usyk and Fury. Other entries factored into consideration were Deok No Yun-Tyson Koki (round one), Ford-Kholmatov (round 12), Caleb Plant-Trevor McCumby (round nine), Tyrone McKenna-Dylan Moran (round two), Beterbiev-Bivol (round 10) and Steve McKenna-Joe Laws (round one).
The Upset of the Year was another landslide, with just one dissenting voice voting for Martin Bakole’s win over Jared Anderson as being a bigger surprise than Surace’s victory over Munguia. Again, there was plenty to choose from, with Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua, Omar Salcido-Chris Colbert, Liam Paro-Subriel Matias, Anthony Cacace-Joe Cordina, Sebastian Fundora and Bakhram Murtazaliev-Tim Tszyu, Pedro Taduran-Ginjiro Shigeoka, Denys Berinchyk-Emanuel Navarrete and Brian Norman-Giovani Santillan all considered.
Likewise, Prospect of the Year was also a two-horse race, between British heavyweight Moses Itauma and Ohio lightweight Abdullah Mason. Itauma’s December win over Demsey McKean might well have sealed it for the 19-year-old, while others might have been harsh on Mason tasting the canvas twice, or indeed given him credit for ticking boxes of adversity on his way up the ladder. Regardless of the methodology behind the decisions, those two clearly topped a 2024 class that included Osleys Iglesias, Rohan Polanco, Troy Isley, Steven Navarro, Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez, Joel Iriarte, Yankiel Rivera, Denier Pero, Yoniel Hernandez, Jhon Orobio, Emiliano Vargas, and Curmel Moton.
While Daniel Dubois won the Comeback of the Year, for overcoming adversity in light of two earlier career defeats and being written off by many in the fight fraternity for the manner of his losses to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk, half the team voted elsewhere. Other names on the list were Joseph Parker, although that was more a continuation of his 2023 form, Vergil Ortiz, Angelo Leo and the spectacular last hurrah of Billy Dib, who was able to pull the curtain down on his career with a win in Hamburg having been told barely two years ago he would not survive cancer. There was also a vote for Richardson Hitchins, who is now an unbeaten champion but a fight earlier was condemned for being overrated in squeezing by Gustavo Lemos. Masamichi Yabuki and Pedro Taduran also made the list to be considered.
Finally, Event of the Year was the most fractured and debated topic. After the first-round votes, there was a tie between four shows, Fury-Usyk I: Undisputed, Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia and the subsequent fall-out, Inoue-Nery at the Tokyo Dome and, of course, the Netflix-buster, Mike Tyson-Jake Paul plus undercard. Other events to receive votes were the Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin and David Benavidez-Oleksandr Gvozdyk Las Vegas double-header and the night it turned out Canelo would not be “eaten” by UFC 300, when he still pulled in the crowds for Edgar Berlanga. Others also debated at the start were the Riyadh Season show in Wembley Stadium, topped by Dubois-Joshua, the two-day carnival of world championship boxing in Japan in October, the Frank Warren-Eddie Hearn 5×5 in Saudi Arabia and Canelo’s Cinco De Mayo weekend show with Munguia.
With Event of the Year narrowed down to just three, Haney-Garcia (plus fallout) picked up a couple of votes, but it was down to Fury-Usyk I and Paul-Tyson. And the winner… (by a solitary vote)… and still Undisputed, was Fury-Usyk I for all of the heavyweight marbles.
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