There are plenty of big fights to be made in 2025 and most of them are vital in terms of deciding the number one fighter in a particular division. We enter the new year encouraged, too, by the fact that more than one big fight took place in 2024 and that clarity at last returned to the heavyweight division.
Lucas Ketelle: The one that comes to mind is Shakur Stevenson-Gervonta Davis at lightweight. We need a fight that defines the modern great American fighter and I think this fight could do it.
Owen Lewis: I know I’m going insane when nothing comes immediately to mind – boxing really has matched the best with the best lately, so much so that no marquee fight we’re actively being deprived of popped into my head. I’ll go off the beaten path at 135 and 140lbs and say David Benavidez-Dmitry Bivol. I’m excited to see Benavidez face off with David Morrell in February, but I’d also like to see him against a pound-for-pounder to see just where his ceiling is. Bivol over Artur Beterbiev because Beterbiev will be 40 early in 2025 and really shouldn’t be casually floated for future fights at this point.
Declan Warrington: Naoya Inoue-Junto Nakatani. As ever, there remain numerous appealing match-ups – Saul Alvarez-David Benavidez; Shakur Stevenson-Gervonta Davis; fights between Jaron Ennis, Terence Crawford and Vergil Ortiz – but there’s a very real possibility that Inoue is on the verge of starting to decline. Oleksandr Usyk and Crawford, his rivals as the world’s finest active fighter, have won their toughest tests, and those tests have come while they have been close to the peak of their powers. A fight with Nakatani can be the same for Inoue – the one that builds his legacy above all others.
Lance Pugmire: I’m going to give an opinion based on the optimism of the holiday season. Of course we’d love to see Shakur-Gervonta, Benavidez-Bivol or Crawford-Ennis, but there are so many potential pitfalls, agendas and egos to navigate, I’d rather go to a showdown that seems more likely to happen with less roadblocks. So despite the friction between Canelo Alvarez and Turki Alalshikh, the interest in making a match pitting four-division champions and two longtime pound-for-pound occupants Alvarez and Terence Crawford is too strong to let petty pride get in the way. Alvarez may be reluctant to fight such a naturally smaller fighter, but unless he wants Benavidez, David Morrell or Bivol instead, this is his best choice for a Cinco de Mayo opponent with super-middleweight contenders Christian Mbilli and Diego Pacheco on the landscape.
Bernard Neequaye: There are a few fights that I would want to see in 2025 namely, Gervonta “Tank” Davis versus Vasyl Lomachenko and Canelo Alvarez against David Benavidez. I know both fights would take something extraordinary to happen but I believe boxing fans have been deprived of these great fights. I look forward to a great year in 2025 where all the top fighters come together to give the fans memorable events.
Also, a Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight at 168 would be interesting to see next year unless Alvarez decides he would not come up against an opponent who needs to jump two weights to slug it out with him. Apart from that, it’s a fight the boxing world wants to see.
Eric Raskin: Coming off a year in which we’ve gotten to check a few major fights off the list, I’m torn between two “prove it” fights at the top of the sport that may never come to fruition: Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez and Tank Davis vs. Shakur Stevenson. They’re both 50-50 fights that would answer almost all questions about the men involved. And since Canelo would be answering his biggest current question just by signing to fight “The Mexican Monster,” I guess I’ll single out Alvarez-Benavidez if forced to pick just one.
Matt Christie: That my learned colleagues have picked numerous matchups here could be seen as a positive – in that, in 2024, the best two fights to make in the sport (Usyk vs. Fury and Beterbiev vs. Bivol) actually occurred. There are of course plenty more to tick off the list and, for me, Tank Davis in a truly meaningful fight tops the list. Though I’d be delighted to see him in with old master Vasyl Lomachenko, there is a real danger that the Ukrainian is past his best so, for that reason, I’ll go Tank against Shakur Stevenson, who is also long overdue a defining test.
Elliot Worsell: Gervonta Davis vs. Shakur Stevenson. It’s not even that the sport needs it, or I personally need to see it. I just think both fighters need it. They need it to feel something again and they need it to regain some of the noise and lustre both have lost.
Tris Dixon: I’d love to see talks reignited for Tank and Lomachenko, and I’d also be highly-invested in Canelo-Benavidez, of course. And the mix and match of opportunities at 154 would allow several wonderful matches. Oh, and as long as we are asking, sign me up for Opetaia-Zurdo.
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