2023: The Year in Boxing
People have been proclaiming 2023 ‘the best year of boxing ever’. This isn’t true, it’s not even the best year in the last decade (2019) but the optimism is preferable to doom forecasts that the sport is dead.
2023 broke boxing out of its covid induced limbo. In April Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia fought in Las Vegas and reportedly sold 1.2 million pay-per-view buys. It’s unclear if this was the inciting push, but promoters began to make the big matchups fans had been calling for: Davis vs Garcia, Devin Haney vs Vasily Lomachenko, Terence Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr., Naoya Inoue vs Stephen Fulton Jr., Josh Taylor vs Teofimo Lopez, Regis Prograis vs Haney, and Sunny Edwards vs Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
Crazily, all but one of these fights were as one sided as can be. (Okay that’s a bit unfair on Sunny, but still.) Only Loma vs Haney was competitive, and it’s the only one that will go down as a classic. Matching up two great boxers is no guarantee of a great fight, only a possibility; just that the fights are getting made is a good thing. Even things like the death of boxing on Showtime or the WBA’s creation of a pointless new Super-Cruiserweight division (no it’s not the same as Bridgerweight) couldn’t dampen the celebratory mood boxing had this year.
A year of Mexican Supremacy
In May the undefeated Irishman Gary Cully fought Mexican José Félix Jr. whose 39–6–1 record (he was coming off two losses) set him up as a gatekeeper and the fight as a litmus test for Cully as he looked to better things. For two rounds the fight followed this script. In the third, Félix battered Cully around the ring until the ref was forced to step in. This was no anomaly, but rather another strike of the ‘Matchroom curse’ by which Eddie Hearn sets British prospects against Mexican gatekeepers, only for the Mexicans to win, usually by knockout.
There are currently nine reigning Mexican champions, second only to the US (10). All three featherweight champions are Mexican. My vote for fighter of the year would be Emanuel Navarrete. Navarrete is a lanky fighter with an awkward style who seems to time everything to a rhythm only he can hear. He’s shown courage both in the ring and in choice of opponents. All three of his fights this year were classics. The best was his fight against unheralded Liam Wilson. It was a messy fight, highlighting Navarette’s biggest defensive flaws, but it is these that make his fights so fun to watch.
Other great Mexican fights this year include Luis Alberto Lopez’s knockout of Michael Conlan, the underrated Alexandro Santiago outpointing Nonito Donaire, and Eduardo Hernandez giving O’Shaquie Foster his toughest test (the fight includes the ‘down on the cards KO’ of the year) and Jaime Munguia and Sergiy Derevychenko fighting one of the best fights, and most contested decisions, of the year. The year ended with a great Mexican upset: Robeisy Ramirez vs mostly unknown Rafael Espinoza. Ramirez, a -1200 betting favourite, deserves some blame for an occasionally lackadaisical performance, but ultimately it was the Mexican’s relentless pressure and strong chin that won him the fight.
A year of Undisputed
There is a reason the only notable boxing videogame in over a decade was called Undisputed. Being undisputed (i.e. simultaneously holding all four major belts — WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF — in one weight division) has never held more weight than it does now. When there were fewer belts it was clear who the ‘real’ champ was. But even through the 1980s and 90s — the ‘three belt’ era — boxers and promoters showed little interest in being undisputed. The biggest names of last generation Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were never undisputed despite conquering multiple divisions, and fans never considered this a mark against their legacies. By comparison, 12 fighters have become undisputed since just the start of 2020. As 2023 began Claressa Shields was the only person ever to be undisputed in two divisions. In 2023 three fighters achieved this: Katie Taylor, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue.
Part of the focus on undisputed is down to the influence of Canelo Alvarez, or at least his PR team, who made it a mark of achievement that Canelo became undisputed at Super Middleweight. His ‘road to undisputed’, collecting the belts from various champions, gave narrative to his fights. (His fight with Jermell Charlo this year was billed as ‘Undisputed vs Undisputed’). Modern boxing feels especially lacking in narratives. Compare recent broadcasts to old HBO shows: the latter feels like a story playing out, the former like a heavily coordinated corporate event.
The other common story right now is the rematch. The appeal of a rematch is clear: it is a perfect set-up for the pathos and urgency of boxing: the chance at redemption, the proving of what many wrote off as a mere fluke, potential bad blood between opponents. And yet the prevalence of rematch clauses delivers little of this: it has given us pointless fights (Haney-Kambosos 2?) and can give a genuine upset the feeling of a muddled error that is hurriedly erased (Ruiz-Joshua 2). The fight most deserving of a rematch this year, Haney vs Lomachenko, will likely never get one.
There were five rivalries that contained both the initial fight and the rematch in 2023: Chris Eubank Jr. vs Liam Smith, Leigh Wood vs Mauricio Lara, Chris Colbert vs Jose Valenzuela, Joe Joyce vs Zhilei Zhang, Katie Taylor vs Chantelle Cameron. Common boxing knowledge says that most rematches go the same way as the original but of these five only one had the same winner as the first.
The best was Taylor vs Cameron. Taylor will probably go down as the best pound-for-pound female boxer ever, but in her return-to-Ireland fight in May she was beaten for the first time. It was a hard-won but definite victory for Chantelle Cameron, one of the most aggressive and powerful punching female boxers. The rematch delivered everything a rematch should: Taylor fought with the urgency of a fighter who knows they must win, Cameron with the confidence of someone following up a career-best victory. The fight was scrappy and fought mostly at close range. It was not Taylor’s most slick performance but it was her most gruelling. It was a redemptive sequel in what will hopefully be a trilogy.
A year of that other boxing
February saw Tommy Fury fight one of the Paul brothers (I’m 80% sure it was Jake). Fury is mainly known for his last name and his time on Love Island. Paul is know for being a youtuber. Hardcore fans claim not to care about this stuff but many were drawn into this supposed proxy war between an ‘actual boxer’ (or at least someone from a ‘boxing family’) and a rich hobbyist. Despite touching the canvas, Fury was the clear winner and many fans took this as a validating win for Boxing.
Impressively, it took Tommy Fury only one fight to squander the goodwill he’d earned with this one. His bizarro fight with KSI, in which the latter used a karate-dance stance, and Fury spent six excruciating rounds clinching, meant fans went back to hating this sort of fluff and equilibrium was restored to the universe.
The justification given to hardcore fans for the presence of ‘influencer boxing’ is that it brings in young fans who wouldn’t otherwise watch and thus brings in money for ‘real’ fights. There is no evidence at all that this is true. But it’s undeniable that in itself this side of boxing, and its most notable outfit Misfits Boxing, has been a huge success. Fury vs KSI was the bestselling PPV of the year with 1.3 million buys.
The most surreal boxing moment of my year was watching gamer youtubers WingsOfRedemption and Boogie2988 fight at Wembley Arena. It was officially the heaviest fight ever sanctioned: Boogie came in at 391.6 pounds, Wings at 404.3. (In case you’re wondering, but not morbidly curious enough to check it out yourself: Wings won by one-sided beatdown, winning by TKO in the second of three planned one-minute rounds.) It was a reminder of boxing’s potential for outright lunacy.
A year of waiting for heavyweights to fight
In the first months of the year fans watched the unfolding and eventual unravelling of negotiations between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. This — reading about meme-level boxing politics — was the most common activity by heavyweight fans through most of 2023. Usyk vs Fury. Joshua vs Wilder. Wilder vs Ruiz. Hrgovic vs literally anybody. The fights refused to materialise.
There were occasional glimmers of light. ‘The Romford Bull’ Johnny Fisher battled through his toughest test against the surprisingly game Harry Armstrong. Undefeateds Fabio Wardley and David Adeleye had a shootout over the British title. Adam Kownacki and Joe Cusumano fought an underseen slugfest. And prospect Justis Huni scored his first notable win in a no-frills fight against Andrew Tabiti. But boxing’s ‘glamour division’ felt barren and emaciated.
The existence of mega-paydays for a select few fighters (Joshua, Fury) has led to a Cold War style stalemate in the division, with prospects waiting out for a big payday, everyone being as selective as possible with opponents, and former champions (e.g. Wilder, Ruiz) refusing to lower their expectations. Boxing fans wonder why in the UFC the best fight the best, and UFC fans wonder why their fighters are paid so little in comparison to boxers. Each questions answers the other. This stalemate seemed to have no solution until
A year of Saudi money
The Saudis’ first major foray into boxing was hosting the World Boxing Super Series final between Callum Smith and George Groves in 2018. Since then, Saudi presence in the sport has steadily increased, to go alongside their other sportswashing campaigns in Forumla One and golf.
Sportswashing is about spectacle more than it is about money, hence the focus on the heavyweight division. Saudi hosted the ‘Battle of the Baddest’ in October between champion Tyson Fury and former MMA champion and boxing debutant Francis Ngannou. Ngannou put Fury on the canvas in what was nearly the upset of the year. Fury jabbed, clinched and elbowed his way to the final bell and a controversial split decision victory. (The official party line has become that only ‘casuals’ score the fight for Ngannou — well count me a casual.) The other big Saudi card, the ‘Day of Reckoning’ on Christmas Eve Eve, had no single big event fight but a fairly stacked card. It included a career-best Joseph Parker beating a Deontay Wilder who contrary to his fans protests didn’t look that much different from how he always looks, Anthony Joshua winning back the fairweather fans with a dominant win over Otto Wallin, and Daniel Dubois and Jarrell Miller in the heavyweight fight of the year with an insane 100 pound weight difference between them.
The Saudi presence in boxing is a deal with the devil: money and sportswashed attention in exchange for finally getting the fights we want: Fury-Usyk, Joshua-W̶i̶l̶d̶e̶r̶Ngannou, and Beterbiev-Bivol are all signed for the first half of 2024. History will surely remember this as one of boxing’s more disreputable chapters, which everyone watching already knows, but still that’s not stopped us watching.
My 20 favourite fights of the year
20. Leigh Wood vs Josh Warrington
19. Subriel Matías vs Shohjahon Ergashev
18. Frank Martin vs Artem Harutyunyan
17. Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou
16. Sunny Edwards vs Jesse Rodriguez
15. O’Shaquie Foster vs Eduardo Hernandez
14. Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois
13. Emanuel Navarrete vs Oscar Valdez
12. Luis Nery vs Azat Hovhannisyan
11. Kenshiro Teraji vs Anthony Olascuaga
10. Daniel Dubois vs Jarrell Miller
9. Amanda Serrano vs Erika Cruz
8. Robeisy Ramirez vs Rafael Espinoza
7. Emanuel Navarrete vs Robson Conceição
6. Katie Taylor vs Chantelle Cameron 1
5. Devin Haney vs Vasily Lomachenko
4. David Benavidez vs Caleb Plant
3. Jaime Munguía vs Sergiy Derevyanchenko
2. Emanuel Navarrete vs Liam Wilson
- Artur Beterbiev vs Anthony Yarde
