Which fighter will you most remember 2024 for?

The BoxingScene crew pinpoint their standout fighter of the year and there is one man leading the way. Please weigh in with your choice below.

Which fighter will you most remember 2024 for?

Kieran Mulvaney: Oleksandr Usyk. This was the year in which he established himself definitively as the premier heavyweight of his generation.

Lucas Ketelle: Oleksandr Usyk for securing his place as the best heavyweight of the new millennium.

Owen Lewis: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Structure your pound-for-pound list as you wish, but no fighter is as casually dominant as “Bam” at this moment. Aside from a flash knockdown, he was dominant for every second of his bout with the laudable “Gallo” Estrada, and he looked even more imposing in his destruction of Pedro Guevara. 

Matt Christie: It has to be Oleksandr Usyk. I am puzzled by the debates about his place in history. He’s one of very few to prove he’s the best heavyweight of his generation – beyond any doubt and without a single caveat.

Declan Warrington: Oleksandr Usyk. He was superb, twice, in the most important of fights against not only a very good, and previously undefeated, opponent in Fury, but one who was considerably bigger. He became the first undisputed heavyweight champion for a quarter of a century, and, at a time when there remained reason to regard either Terence Crawford or Naoya Inoue as the world’s finest active fighter, proved that it is in fact him. How could it be anyone else?

Jason Langendorf: Usyk, with a nod to Bam Rodriguez. Usyk became undisputed heavyweight champion after going undisputed at cruiserweight, proving in the process that bigger isn’t always better and bringing a gentlemanly, professional bearing back to a division and a sport that increasingly lacks both. Meanwhile, Rodriguez arrived like a comet in 2024, harking back to the dazzling and precocious early acts of Manny Pacquiao and Naoya Inoue, among others.

Lance Pugmire: Usyk. By topping his remarkable comeback in the first fight by rallying by the respected former champion in the rematch, the Ukrainian becomes the heavyweight of his generation – with an undisputed cruiserweight claim to boot.
Dixon: Usyk. Unified. Undisputed. Wonderful. Not only the best heavyweight of his generation but against a backdrop of trauma in his country somehow makes it all the more spectacular. A nod to Inoue here, too.

Eric Raskin: Oleksandr Usyk. When you hand a previously undefeated heavyweight champion two defeats and unify the titles in boxing’s signature division, and you happen to be giving away about 40-60 pounds to do so, and both fights are entertaining on top of all that … yeah, it’s your year.

Elliot Worsell: Usyk. If it wasn’t enough to beat Tyson Fury once, he did it again seven months later. Both times he was up against it and both times his intelligence and courage proved the difference.