Boxing has a history of making ‘fun’ fights, some which guaranteed excitement from the offset and others that we didn’t expect to be made at all. With that in mind, what is the most fun fight to be made in 2025?
Lucas Ketelle: A bit of an odd choice, but Teofimo Lopez vs. Devin Haney. Both have had ups and downs in their career, but they are also two of the most important fighters of the modern era of boxing.
Owen Lewis: Shakur Stevenson to climb half a dozen weight classes and challenge Demetrius Andrade. Kidding! Jaron “Boots” Ennis-Vergil Ortiz.
Declan Warrington: Jaron Ennis-Vergil Ortiz, a fight so appealing that when it became clear it wasn’t going to be on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol II in February I was actually relieved. Ennis-Ortiz, or Ortiz-Ennis, deserves to be the main event – a significant occasion – somewhere in the US, where people will actually be invested in it.
Lance Pugmire: The Ryan Garcia-Devin Haney rematch. OK, it won’t be all fun, but the banter between the camps and Bill Haney Oscar De La Hoya’s films are usually worth some yucks and this is a lucrative fight that needs to happen sooner rather than later anyway.
Bernard Neequaye: The fight that comes to mind is Jaron “Boots” Ennis against Vergil Ortiz. It was disappointing to see the fight which was expected to take place on February 1 fall through, but I’m convinced this could be one of the best fights in 2025 if it happens.
Eric Raskin: I’d love to say something unexpected, perhaps involving the always exciting Subriel Matias, but my honest answer is the go-along-with-the-crowd answer: Boots Ennis vs. Vergil Ortiz. We just don’t get to see two boxers this talented and this competitively matched meeting while both still on the rise very often.
Matt Christie: Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua would undoubtedly be fun. But I take fun, in this sense, to mean contests plucked out leftfield by pitching two fighters from different weight classes together. The kind of fun that could go awry given the size discrepancy but also the kind of fun that often emerges from the unknown. So take your pick from Naoya Inoue-Bam Rodriguez, Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford or Oleksandr Usyk-Artur Beterbiev.
Elliot Worsell: I’d actually like to see Terence Crawford fight Canelo Alvarez just because it seems like the only fight Crawford will entertain and because I want to see him fight again. Crawford’s fights are always fun and, as much as I was against it when first mooted, it would be fun to watch him try to figure out a way to beat Alvarez. A more realistic option would be Naoya Inoue vs. Junto Nakatani; or, for some sloppier fun, Daniel Dubois vs. Martin Bakole.
Tris Dixon: Dubois-Bakole is a great shout, but there is a case for Vergil Ortiz and Serhii Bohachuk to run it back. And I still hope we get to Bohachuk-Madrimov at some point.
Jason Langendorf: Oh, dear god, I’m doing it again: Give me Naoya Inoue-Jesse Rodriguez. Look, if we’re going for fun, this is it. I’m not trying to end Bam’s career before it really gets started, but I’d love to find a way to pair the exquisite junior bantamweight titleholder with the 31-year-old junior featherweight king Inoue (who began his career at 115lbs) before the inevitable decline sets in.
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