In 2024, boxing fans saw anticipated rematches, historic victories, impressive performances, and a few incredible upsets.
Many of the biggest boxing events last year took place during Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia, where we saw Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury fight twice for heavyweight supremacy, and other events that helped revitalize the glamour division.
Last year we also saw the youngest undisputed champion in women’s boxing, and the introduction of Netflix into the boxing world with the streaming service company’s first live boxing event. And while Jake Paul‘s victory over legendary Mike Tyson was the headliner at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in a rematch of their 2002 bout was another instant classic.
And let’s not forget the KOs. With impressive stoppages, especially in title fights, this was probably the most difficult category to pick in our annual best-of-the-year list.
To celebrate the best of those fighters and performances, Mike Coppinger and Nick Parkinson pick the sport’s best of the year.
Men’s fighter of the year: Oleksandr Usyk
Usyk is our slam-dunk winner for top honors following the best campaign of his Hall of Fame career.
Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in nearly 25 years when he handed Tyson Fury the first loss of his career in May. The Ukrainian did the job in fashion, too: he landed 14 unanswered punches in Round 9 and was on the verge of a stoppage victory scoring a knockdown.
The career-best performance lifted Usyk to the No. 1 spot in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings. In the December rematch, the Olympic gold medalist left no doubt with an even clearer unanimous decision victory over Fury, who outweighed Usyk by nearly 60 pounds.
The pair of wins cemented Usyk as the greatest heavyweight of his generation. — Coppinger
Women’s Fighter of the Year: Gabriela Fundora
Fundora became the youngest ever undisputed boxing world champion when she won all four major flyweight titles at 22 years old in November. The historic win also made Fundora the standout star of women’s boxing in 2024.
After two defenses of the IBF belt earlier in the year, Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) captured the WBC, WBO and WBA titles in an undisputed showdown with Gabriela Celeste Alaniz by seventh-round stoppage in Las Vegas. The Californian, known as the “Sweet Poison,” has stopped seven of her 15 opponents, which is especially destructive for women’s boxing, and replaced Alaniz as ESPN’s No. 1-ranked flyweight.
Fundora’s height (5-foot-9) has proved decisive in fights this year. Gabriela and her older brother, 27-year-old Sebastian Fundora, are the first brother and sister to hold boxing world titles simultaneously, beating out Daniel and Caroline Dubois, after Caroline was promoted to full champion in December. Fundora, one of ESPN’s best fighters under the age of 25, has the potential to succeed Amanda Serrano as the biggest women’s boxing star in the lighter weight classes.
ESPN’s pound-for-pound No. 1 Claressa Shields (15-0, 3 KOs), who won heavyweight and light heavyweight world titles in her only fight of the year, a second-round KO win over Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in July and now has world titles in five weight divisions, also had a remarkable year, but Fundora’s feat just edges it. — Parkinson
Men’s fight of the year: Oleksandr Usyk UD12 Tyson Fury
Usyk picks up our other most prestigious pick here for his instant classic heavyweight tussle with Fury in May.
Magnitude matters here, and fights don’t come much bigger than two star boxers laying their undefeated records on the line to determine heavyweight supremacy.
The clash featured numerous momentum shifts as Fury led the early action before Usyk turned the tide for good in that pivotal ninth round to earn the split decision victory.
There were many difficult-to-score rounds as Fury won the fight on one scorecard, but Usyk’s superior clean punching along with the 10-8 Round 9 won him the thrilling fight and the undisputed championship.
The first meeting would always prove tough to top, and indeed the December rematch — although it was also a good fight — didn’t come close to matching the May bout in terms of action and entertainment value. — Coppinger
Women’s fight of the year: Katie Taylor UD10 Amanda Serrano
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Katie Taylor edges out Amanda Serrano in controversial decision
Katie Taylor defeats Amanda Serrano to remain undisputed champion at AT&T Stadium.
Taylor’s rematch with Serrano delivered an incredible display of women’s boxing in the biggest women’s fight ever. As chief support to social media superstar Jake Paul’s November win over Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Taylor and Serrano produced a close, intense and skillful encounter that was watched by an estimated 74 million live viewers globally on Netflix.
Taylor prevailed, just like in their first fight, and once again the scores were disputed. What was beyond doubt was the quality that Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs), 38, and Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs), 36, both showed. It was the perfect advert for women’s boxing from two of the best in the world (Taylor is No. 2 and Serrano is No. 3 in the latest ESPN pound-for-pound rankings).
They combined to throw a staggering 1,263 punches over 10, two-minute rounds. Both had spells of dominance, but they were hard to separate in some rounds. Serrano’s 324 punches landed for the fight were the most by a woman in CompuBox history, but Taylor took the decision by scores of 95-94, 95-94 and 95-94 to retain her undisputed junior welterweight titles.
Taylor and Serrano both emerged from the fight as winners, and women’s boxing can only have benefited from the exposure the sport gained from their efforts. — Parkinson
Men’s KO of the year: Angelo Leo KO10 Luis Alberto Lopez
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Angelo Leo flattens Venado Lopez for KO of the year candidate
Angelo Leo needs one punch to flatten Venado Lopez and claim the IBF belt for the knockout of the year candidate.
This was the toughest selection with so many highlight-reel knockouts to choose from. In the end, with little separating the field, Leo (25-1, 12 KOs) grabs the honor as he won the title with his brutal KO of Lopez and did so as a major underdog — Leo was a +350 underdog entering the fight, according to ESPN BET.
The IBF featherweight title fight was ultra competitive before Leo separated Lopez from his senses with a single left hook in Round 7. Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) immediately crashed to the canvas flat on his back as the punch connected.
Leo became a champion for the first time with the odds stacked against him, and he did so in style. — Coppinger
Men’s upset of the year: Bruno Surace KO6 Jaime Munguia
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Bruno Surace scores stunning win over Jaime Munguia in 6th round
Bruno Surace somehow comes up with the incredible upset of Jaime Munguia via knockout in Round 6.
Munguia, a former junior middleweight champion, was a -2500 favorite per ESPN BET when he entered the ring in December for a routine homecoming fight in Tijuana, Mexico.
Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) was little more than an afterthought: a light-punching boxer who never fought outside France with just four knockouts in 27 pro-fights.
There was little to indicate Surace would provide any resistance at all. Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) was rated No. 3 by ESPN at 168 pounds and his lone career defeat at the time, came earlier in the year in a decision setback to Canelo Alvarez.
All seemed to go according to plan when Munguia floored Surace in Round 3. But he rose from the canvas and continued to press forward in his first big opportunity on the big stage. He found pay dirt in Round 6 when an overhand right dropped Munguia for the count of 10. The referee’s count appeared to be quick, but it didn’t matter: Munguia was clearly in no shape to continue.
Top Rank, which just signed Munguia in September, planned to match him with top contender Christian Mbilli in 2025. Instead, Munguia will look to exact revenge after he exercised the rematch clause in December for a return bout with Surace. — Coppinger
Men’s prospect of the year: Moses Itauma
Itauma looks like a future heavyweight champion following his breakout year.
The Slovakia native who fights out of England competed four times in 2024 — all stoppage victories — and wrapped up honors with a shocking first-round TKO of Demsey McKean on the Usyk-Fury 2 undercard.
McKean is durable and represented a big step up in class for Itauma. Only he sliced through the Australian with his lightning-quick combinations: two knockdowns produced by the overhand left ended matters in the opening round.
McKean wasn’t stopped by Filip Hrgovic until Round 12 last year, so it’s mightily impressive that Itauma could make such quick work, especially in just his 11th pro fight.
Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) didn’t turn 20 until one week after the fight and now that he passed his first litmus test with flying colors, he should face stiffer competition in 2025 before possibly challenging for a world title the following year. — Coppinger
Trainer of the year: Robert Garcia
Long regarded as one of the sport’s best trainers, the former junior lightweight champion enjoyed another banner year as a chief second.
His best pupil, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, delivered his best campaign yet with a seventh round, body-shot KO of future Hall of Famer Juan Francisco Estrada in June.
Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) retained his 115-pound title with another dominant performance, a third-round KO of former champion Pedro Guevara in November.
Garcia’s other top fighter, Vergil Ortiz Jr., didn’t fight at all in 2023 but got back on track last year with three fights, culminating with a thrilling decision win over Serhii Bohachuk in August. Like Rodriguez did against Estrada, Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) rose off the canvas to score the biggest win of his career.
The win propelled Ortiz to his toughest test yet, a Feb. 22 showdown with former champion Israil Madrimov.
The 49-year-old also trains many promising prospects at his eponymous boxing academy in Southern California. — Coppinger
Manager of the year: Keith Connolly
Connolly is known in boxing circles as the go-to guy to extract top dollars for his fighters. He did perhaps his best work yet in 2024 when he somehow secured an eight-figure package for Edgar Berlanga to face Canelo Alvarez in September.
Fighters routinely earn career-high paydays for an assignment with boxing’s top star, but Berlanga wasn’t the matchup anyone asked for. Yet he still came away $ 10 million richer. To land Berlanga the fight, Connolly first negotiated Berlanga’s release from Top Rank.
Connolly also pulled in nearly eight figures for Filip Hrgovic across multiple fights that culminated in a heavyweight title eliminator loss to Daniel Dubois in June.
Connolly ended the year by adding a champion to his stable after Richardson Hitchins defeated Liam Paro.
Now, Connolly is looking to finalize a lucrative deal for Conor Benn to finally face Chris Eubank Jr. in the spring. — Coppinger
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