B/R Boxing Awards for 2024

Why let the guy in the red suit have all the fun?

The B/R combat team is in a giving mood, too, and after getting together to crunch all the numbers and analyze all the in-ring results from the last 12 months, we're ready to present the 2024 awards for the best fight and knockout, alongside the biggest upset, the most noteworthy fighter on the rise, and, last but not least, the fighter of the year.

As always, there were worthy nominees in all categories, which left the significance of the event(s) involved to serve as a primary tiebreaker from one to the other.

Scroll through to see what we came up with, and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.

Sometimes in life, things just go together.

Peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Salt and pepper.

It's no different in boxing. In fact, history is filled with pairs of fighters who, when squaring off in a ring, were capable of elevating the sport to another level.

For the older crowd, we'll go with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. For those slightly younger, we'll offer Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward.

But for today's boxing fans, it's hard to do better than Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

The two elite women squared off in a headline bout at Madison Square Garden two years ago and provided an instant 10-round classic, and their rematch was no different—actually, it was better—when they reconnected at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in November.

Another violent 10 rounds. More blood. More sweat.

And in the end, more controversy when Taylor was again awarded a decision that many in the crowd, not to mention Serrano, didn't think she deserved.

The trio of 95-94 scores in the Irish fighter's favor may have left a bad taste, but they didn't diminish the quality of their combat, which, for the second time, was the year's best.

Here's one where the significance of the event is a worthy tiebreaker.

Though Lucas Bahdi's one-shot KO of then-unbeaten prospect Ashton Sylve in July was a definite head-turner, the fact that it came on the undercard of a Jake Paul show in Tampa, Florida, and not in a higher-profile spot relegates it to just second-best here.

Which leaves the honor to Angelo Leo, who, less than a month after Bahdi's win, ratcheted things up a notch with a single left hook that both rendered Luis Alberto Lopez motionless in the center of the ring and ended his reign as the IBF's champion at featherweight.

The official time was 1:16 of the 10th round.

It provided a second world title in a second division for Leo, fighting in his native Albuquerque for the first time in nine years, who'd been neck and neck on the scorecards through nine rounds in his fourth fight at 126 pounds. He'd previously fought at 122 pounds and held the WBO title for five months before dropping it to Stephen Fulton.

Also considered alongside the Leo-Lopez and Bahdi-Sylve KOs was Gervonta Davis' punishing eighth-round stoppage of Frank Martin in defense of his WBA title at 135 pounds.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for Anthony Joshua.

The mammoth British heavyweight was already a two-time title claimant, and, following his career-resurrecting KO of MMA interloper Francis Ngannou, was supposed to snag the IBF title on the way to a long-awaited showdown with U.K. rival Tyson Fury.

Only Daniel Dubois, a young and strong but not-so-proven talent, stood in the way of a series of blockbusters for the eminently marketable "AJ" and promotional guru Eddie Hearn.

But then, poof.

Dubois rattled Joshua with the first punch he threw, had him on the floor by the end of the first round, and beat him from ring post to ring post in nearly every round until landing the kill shot in the fifth as Joshua came in for a rally of his own.

It was Joshua's fourth defeat in 10 fights since a 22-0 start, though, now that Fury has dropped a second decision to Oleksandr Usyk, it may be time to finally stage their bout as a loser-leaves-town match while Dubois chases his own rematch with Usyk.

Go ahead and ask yourself which fight was the most-talked about in 2024.

We've got a good guess that it might have involved Mike Tyson.

And some guy named Jake Paul, too.

So, as much as it infuriates the purists of the bunch, it'd be hard to make a legitimate argument that Paul's in-ring star didn't rise higher and shine brighter than anyone else on his comparatively newbie level this year.

The desultory eight-round defeat of a 58-year-old Tyson improved Paul's record to 11-1 since he debuted in 2020, but, more importantly, it drew more than 70,000 people to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It was also his third win of the calendar year, following a one-round blowout of Ryan Bourland in Puerto Rico in March and a sixth-round stop of MMA refugee Mike Perry in Florida in July.

The requisite calls for the likes of Canelo Alvarez followed the Tyson fight, but it's far more likely Paul finds his way to a less-threatening but still lucrative option to begin 2025.

And it's just as likely, based on his acumen as a pitchman, that you'll be watching.

Make no mistake, a lot of fighters did a lot of things in 2024.

Naoya Inoue remained a "Monster." Canelo Alvarez remained a star. And Jesse Rodriguez, a 20-something from Texas, became a fixture on all worthwhile pound-for-pound lists.

Each of them, and many others, could have made a claim to be Fighter of the Year.

But in our estimation, none did more than Oleksandr Usyk.

The Ukrainian turned 37 in January and began his competitive year with the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles that he'd taken from Anthony Joshua in 2021. But he was typically regarded as second banana in the division behind two-time champ Tyson Fury, who'd dethroned Deontay Wilder and racked up three successful defenses since.

Well, that's not the case anymore.

Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight champ since Lennox Lewis with a split decision over Fury in May, then solidified the claim with a unanimous verdict last weekend in Saudi Arabia in which all three judges awarded him eight of 12 rounds.

He'd been deemed the world's best fighter by virtue of undisputed claims at cruiserweight and heavyweight and is now warranting all-time consideration thanks to an unbeaten record and a penchant for sublimely taking down significant favorites.

And in 2024, nobody did it better.