By Norm Frauenheim
Say goodbye to the good, bad and the stupid. 2024 was a lot like so many other years on boxing’s roller-coaster ride through history.
From Ryan Garcia to Jake Paul-versus-Mike Tyson, there was plenty to forget. Actually, Tyson probably had the best advice. He said he didn’t remember a thing about the Paul fight, a Netflix show of the absurd. Wish it was that easy.
But there were moments and performances worth remembering. Thank you Oleksandr Usyk, Jesse Rodriguez, Naoya Inoue, Artur Beterbiev, Dmitrii Bivol and the Ukrainians for saving the year from becoming one for the spit bucket.
A look back at 2024 and hoping for better in 2025:
Fighter of the Year
Usyk, From this corner, it looks to be a no-brainer. He beat Tyson Fury twice, nearly stopping him in May and then backing it up in December with a comprehensive — 116-112 on all three cards — decision on Dec. 21, both in Saudi Arabia. But there is no consensus in boxing or anywhere else these days. The social-media mob dismissed the rematch’s scoring and Usyk’s place in history. If you don’t like him as Fighter of the Year, how about Man of the Year? He stands up for the Ukraine, his home in a desperate war against the Russians. He is boxing’s most compelling personalty since Manny Pacquiao, also a people’s champ still revered by fellow Filipinos.
What does Usyk do in 2025? Nobody knows. He doesn’t know. The answer might rest in the fate of his country. If he continues to box, there’s an opportunity to further his claim on a genuine legacy. 2025 includes the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier 3. Ali won the 1975 fight, an unrivaled mix of courage, skill and brutality on October 1 of that year. Trainer Eddie Futch, knowing that Frazier couldn’t see and had only his inexhaustible will to continue, ended it after the 14th round.
The fight was many things. There was the violence witnessed in Fury-Deontay Wilder 3. There was Evander Holyfield’s masterful skillset, a key to conquering the bully in feared Tyson. All of the classic elements were there — all at once — in the Thrilla In Manila. A reported 100 million watched on closed-circuit. A reported 500,000 bought HBO pay-per-view. Boxing will never be the same. But the aniversary is an opportunity to look at heavyweight history and a chance for Usyk to prove that he has place in it.
Fighter Of The Year Runner-up
Jesse Rodriguez. He calls himself Bam and that’s exactly the impact he had on 2024. His power was already documented, but there might have been some questions about the skills needed to deliver it against an equally skilled opponent.
Enter Juan Francisco Estrada in late June on a hot desert night in downtown Phoenix. Rodriguez, then a flyweight champion, re-claimed his Super Fly belt and reputation in a bout that was fought at a skills-and-will level as high as any throughout 2024. Bam scored a knockdown, got knocked down himself, got up and finished Estrada with body punches delivered with timing and precision. Estrada, an acknowledged master of ring tactics, was finished, moving up in weight instead of a rematch. Rodriguez went on to win a third-round stoppage of Pedro Guevara in Philadelphia in November.
Bam in 2025? His momentum carries him into the New Year, but it is double edged. Everybody saw what he did to Estrada, who said no to another one, despite a rematch clause. Roman Gonzalez had been rumored, but apparently he also said no to a proposed date with Rodriguez. Rodriguez wants to unify the 115-pound title, perhaps against Argentine Fernando Martinez, who withdrew from a New Year’s Eve rematch with Kazuko Ioka in Japan because of the flu. Eventually, Martinez figures to fight Ioka. Rodriguez gets the winner? It looms as a possible steppingstone to what is still a dream fight — Rodriguez against pound-for-pound claimant Naoya Inoue.
Fight Of The Year
Ageless Artur Beterbiev, in majority-decision over Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed light-heavyweight title in a beauty of a bout in October.
It was close enough to do it all over again, and that’s the plan, also in Saudi Arabia on Feb 22.
What happens in 2025? The rematch, a pick-em fight, is a stage setter for the rest of the year. Three weeks before, David Benavidez and David Morrell, light-heavyweight newcomers, face each other in the first real significant fight of 2025 in Las Vegas.
The Benavidez-Morrell winner on Feb. 1 is a so-called mandatory, meaning it will lead to a fight against the Beterbiev-Bivol winner. But only complications are really mandatory, especially if the tactically-skilled Bivol wins this time.
That might might mean Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed super-middleweight champion in a move to to avenge his 2022 scorecard loss to Bivol.
It’s not clear what Canelo intends to do. A date with former welterweight great and current junior-middleweight champ Terence Crawford continues to be at the top of the rumor mill. But Bivol would be an option. So, to would Beterbiev, although that one is unlikely because of the rugged Beterbiev’s heavy-handed power.
No matter what happens, Benavidez has to beat Morrell first. It’s risky, but it has fans talking a month before opening bell precisely because it is.
If Benavidez wins what will be only his second fight at 175 pounds and Canelo chooses to fight the Bivol-Beterbiev winner, Benavidez will find himself in the same place the Phoenix-born fighter has always been:
Waiting on Canelo — another chapter to a story line that dominated in 2023 and again in 2024.
Trainer Of The Year
Robert Garcia. This is a no-brainer. Garcia, Jesse Rodriguez’ trainer, is putting the best into busy. Latest example: Garcia, Jesse Rodriguez’ trainer, put in a lot of roadwork on Dec. 7. From dressing room to ring and back, Garcia worked five corners on a Top Rank/ESPN-televised card featuring Emanuel Navarrete’s blowout stoppage of Oscar Valdez in a rematch at Footprint Center, the Phoenix Suns home arena.
Fighters of the Year
The Ukrainians. They aren’t all as talented as Usyk or Vasiliy Lomachenko. Throughout 2024, however, virtually all have proven to be a tough out. There’s an old line in boxing: They come to fight. It’s a cliche, but the Ukrainians gave it new life throughout 2024. With their country in peril from the Russians in a brutal war, they boxed with skill and inexhaustible resilience against better-known and always heavily favored fighters. In 2024, an unprepared Ukrainian did not answer an opening bell.
Here are just two:
Denys Berinchyk. He introduced Navarrete to the lightweight division. The favored Navarrete lost a split decision to Berinchyk in San Diego for a vacant 135-pound title in May. Instead of a rematch with Berinchyk for a bid at a fourth division title, he chose to fight Valdez for a second time.
Serhii Bohachuk. He knocked down talented junior-middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. twice before losing a debatable majority decision in August in Las Vegas. It was the first time any fighter had taken Ortiz to the scorecards.
Remember them. Without them, boxing wouldn’t have been what it was in 2024.
