Boxing in 2024 was dominated by the undisputed showdowns between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury for heavyweight glory and light-heavyweight kings Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Usyk came from behind on the cards, scored a knockdown against Fury in a hellacious ninth round and won a split-decision verdict to become the first undisputed heavyweight king for 25 years.
The Ukrainian master doubled down on his triumph with a unanimous decision win over Fury in their December rematch, another excellent fight that rubberstamped Usyk’s status as The Sporting News Men’s Fighter of the Year for 2024.
Beterbiev won a wafer-thin and disputed majority decision over Bivol in a gripping contest. They’ll go to work again in Saudi Arabia next month, underscoring the sense that Riyadh Season provides the sport’s new centre of gravity.
However, as the list below shows, there have been plenty of incredible feats witnessed in boxing’s more traditional heartlands.
MORE: Why Oleksandr Usyk won The Sporting News’ Men’s Fighter of the Year 2024
Fight of the Year
Vergil Ortiz Jr. MD 12 Serhii Bohachuk
- Date: August 24
- Location: Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas
A Vegas thriller for the ages. Vergil Ortiz Jr. walked to the ring at the Mandalay Bay with one of the most sparkling resumes in the sport, 21 wins and 21 KOs. His previous two fights in 2024 against Fredrick Lawson and Thomas Dulorme ended in first-round knockouts.
Bohachuk was a different proposition entirely and put Ortiz down with an overhand right in the opening session – an incident that was initially ruled a slip before instant replay was consulted after four rounds and the decision was changed to a knockdown, handing the Ukrainian a valuable 10-8 round.
If that all sounds weirdly new-fangled, what followed was an old-school, bone-shuddering shootout between two elite operators. The pair threw a combined 1,500 punches in an unrelenting battle.
Ortiz touched down again in round eight from a left hook but his response was emphatic, winning round nine on two of the three cards and sweeping the championship rounds.
Those efforts were ultimately decisive in the American winning 114-112 on two cards with the third judge scoring it 113-113 even.
“Fight of the year, baby!” hollered Ortiz’s promoter Oscar de la Hoya in the aftermath. We wholeheartedly agree.
Knockout of the Year
Daniel Dubois KO 5 Anthony Joshua
- Date: September 21
- Location: Wembley Stadium, London
Some knockout-of-the-year candidates achieve that status through being utterly shocking, perhaps coming against the flow of the fight up until that point.
Daniel Dubois laying out Anthony Joshua at the same Wembley Stadium ‘AJ’ made his own during his first championship run, was indeed shocking.
That it remained so after Dubois dealt out a merciless shellacking to his countryman speaks of how seismic it was. Joshua had been vulnerable, down and beaten before. But in London, against a Londoner? This wasn’t in the script.
Dubois isn’t much in the habit of paying attention to scripts having proved the doubters wrong with wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic heading into the Riyadh Season bonanza at Wembley.
We might have been talking about knockout of the year in round one after Joshua left himself exposed to a sledgehammer right. It was a wonder he got up and spoke volumes of his oft-questioned fighting heart. Dubois scored two more knockdowns in a painful beatdown before the fifth.
Joshua then threw caution to the wind, which contributed to the otherworldly quality of this knockout.
He nailed and buzzed Dubois with two hard right hands. Sensing it was now or never, Joshua aimed a wild uppercut to close the show, leaving Dubois the space to land a short, shuddering right to turn his lights out.
MORE: Why Gabriela Fundora won The Sporting News’ Women’s Fighter of the Year 2024
Trainer of the Year
Robert Garcia
An honourable mention at this point to Don Charles, who has overseen Dubois’ stirring career revival. But he’s just beaten out by Robert Garcia, who has enjoyed another banner year.
Garcia’s current start pupil is the sensational Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, who followed his unification triumph over Sunny Edwards last December by stepping up to super-flyweight and defeating the brilliant Juan Francisco Estrada.
Rodriguez scored a knockdown and was then decked himself before scoring an emphatic body shot stoppage to lift the WBC title. But Bam is simply the jewel in Garcia’s Oxnard, California stable, which went 70-7 this year.
Garcia was the man in the corner in our fight of the year, guiding Ortiz through those choppy waters, a win that came on the back of Jose Valenzuela upsetting 140-pound titleist Isaac Cruz.
Upset of the Year
Bruno Surace KO 6 Jaime Munguia
- Date: December 14
- Location: Estadio Caliente, Tijuana
There isn’t really any such thing as a friendly or an exhibition bout in professional boxing.
If you were being cynical, you could say Jaime Munguia’s hometown fight against Bruno Surace — a fighter with four career stoppages who had never boxed outside of his native France — was arranged to be as close as you get to one.
But then, there isn’t any such thing as a friendly or an exhibition in professional boxing. As Munguia painfully found out. Surace was down in round two from a monster left hook and Munguia was in complete control heading into the sixth. Everything was as it should have been.
Then the home favourite got sloppy as he attacked with an uppercut near the ropes. Surace took stock, found his range with a jab and uncorked a perfect right hand flush onto Munguia’s chin.
Flat on his back and scrambling to get up, the Mexican star could not beat the count and faces a huge rebuilding job on the back of Surace’s Cinderella story.
MORE: 2025 Boxing schedule, upcoming events and dates
