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Look, 2022 was a good year for boxing. Really very good indeed. Yes, it had it’s fair share of bullshit, and we’re all disappointed about certain things falling apart again, but instead of focusing on what didn’t happen, let’s celebrate what did: a cavalcade of unifications, exciting fights, great moments and, well, we have to briefly acknowledge some memorable dumb shit. Let’s take a look.

Tough Bastard of the Year

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All boxers have to be tough bastards to some extent. It takes balls of steel to step into that squared circle, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, no matter what kind of fighter you are. There was one example of being a brick-hard bastard that stood out, though: Jai Opetaia, jumping up several levels in class of opponent to face Mairis Briedis for the cruiserweight title, ended the fight barely able to speak, his jaw seemingly hanging off. Subsequent x-rays showed that to be almost literally true- both mandibles had broken clean through. He reported that he’d sustained the initial injury quite early on, meaning he’d fought half the fight or more like that. And he won.
Briedis deserves his props here too - it was a brutal fight in both directions. But Opetaia stepping into the fire so many levels above where he’d previously been and, having taken such a brutal injury and more besides, coming out on top makes him a worthy winner in this category.

Dumbass of the Year

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Boxing being what it is, we’re not short of candidates on this one even in a good year. Oftentimes this would go to something a fighter did in the ring, and we surely have to give a mention to George Kambosos’ baffling gameplan in his rematch with Devin Haney. Others it would go to something a fighter did out of a ring, and John Riel Casimero losing his opportunity to fight Paul Butler for a title by failing to cut weight then trying to lose it all in the sauna the day before (leading to a doctor’s intervention) is up there. But we’ll go another route this time, and give the nod to Eddie Hearn, for his defence of Connor Benn’s failed drug test.
This wasn’t just dumb for the face-of-it reason - that defending failed drug tests is silly. Eddie Hearn knows how the internet works, he’s made great use of it in putting himself and his fighters into the position they are. He also knows he’s previously spoken out with very strong words in the exact opposite situation, demanding fights be cancelled and pillorying his fighters’ opponents. So he should have known that his defence of Benn and attempts to keep the fight going would blow back on him. But no, he didn’t, and he torched an awful lot of goodwill even with his own fans by doing so. Not a great look for someone whose entire job consists of PR. Whoops.

Breakout of the Year

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As far as boxers go, there’s only one choice for this one really. At the start of the year, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez was still for the most part ‘Joshua Franco’s little brother’, an interesting but not yet shining prospect at light flyweight and flyweight. Then Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, a few days before his scheduled superfly fight with Carlos Cuadras, got covid, and Rodriguez stepped up in weight (and several in class) to save the card.
He took the chance with both hands. He didn’t just win, he won in style, displaying flash hands and even flashier footwork reminiscent of Lomachenko or the old-school Orlando Canizales. Then he followed it up by giving even more of a schooling to SSR himself. Sceptics will say that maybe those two opponents were past their best, and sure, that might be true, but they’ve been in with the best of the best in the world- p4p, not just at the weight- in their time and not been as convincingly beaten as they were by Rodriguez. He topped the year off with a win over Israel Gonzalez, and if he wasn’t quite as stylish there, well, it showed another string to his bow, an ability to tough it out when things don’t go perfectly. He’s decided to drop back down to flyweight to pursue titles there for now- some will be disappointed that he won’t be facing Estrada or Gonzalez anytime soon, but flyweight itself has plenty for him, so it’s a perfectly good move. Here’s hoping he can turn that breakout year into something permanently brilliant.

We should, though, give an equal mention to women’s boxing in general. That side of the sport has been building momentum over the last few years, but 2022 was a year in which two of the biggest events were headlined by women: undisputed unifications between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, and between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall. The former was one of the fights of the year, the latter a bit too one-sided for that but also a good fight, notable also for topping a card composed entirely of women’s fights, most of them entertaining. We’re also beginning to see women’s boxing regularly get a spot on televised main cards throughout the year, as various fighters build their followings and set up rivalries and narratives that even fairly casual fans will notice. Yes, it’s still going to be a while before the depth in the women’s game is where it needs to be to have competitive fights as often as we’d like them, but this kind of year will go a long way towards strengthening it, and long may it continue.

Upset of the year

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Disclaimer: we’re not looking at actual betting odds here. Indeed, this isn’t necessarily even about what the actual most unlikely victory was, because there will have been a few underdogs hidden away on cards that pulled of shocks the bookmakers didn’t see coming. They’re fun when they happen, but what we’re interested in here is upsets that made a big splash.
That wording would mean you could make a case for Dmitry Bivol beating Canelo on that basis, as certainly the splash was biggest, but… well, it was still an already known world level boxer beating another. So no. Instead, we’ll recognise another champion’s fall, at the lower weights.
Jerwin Ancajas, who’d been holding on to a super-bantamweight IBF title for years now, expected another routine defence back in February (they’d all been routine- it was an unedifying reign). Instead, unfancied Argentine Fernando Martinez came in and beat the brakes off him for twelve rounds, winning a wide decision and landing over 400 punches. They rematched in October, and pretty much the same happened, proving the upset was no fluke and raising the happy prospect of a champion who’d actually want to face fellow champions. Thus, not just a surprising result but a relevant one, opening up unifications and further excitement in the division. Good stuff.

Knockout of the year

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There were a number of candidates for this one. Joe Cordina showed unexpected power to absolutely flatten Kenichi Ogawa for a title belt, Caleb Plant put an end to Anthony Dirrell’s title hopes with a scorching left hook, and Leigh Wood sealed a comeback victory over Michael Conlan by literally punching him out of the ring. For our pick, though, we’re going to look a little bit beyond world level: Jordan Gill’s improbable, last-gasp comeback KO of Karim Guerfi back in February.
The KO stands on its own as a lovely hit, but to get the full story we need some context. Put simply, Gill had had a rough time in that fight: not only had he taken a bit of a legitimate beating, apparently having his eardrum burst and potentially having a leg injury, he’d been dropped on his head during a tangle and fall, leaving him with a pretty obvious concussion. He hadn’t been able to walk for several rounds before the KO, spending them stood in his corner, just above his coach (Dave Coldwell, giving a fantastic performance to talk him through it it must be said) and inviting Guerfi on to him. Quite why the Frenchman never did make Gill come forward isn’t clear, but he didn’t, instead choosing to try to break down his defences where he was. This was going quite well for him anyway, but with seconds left in the ninth round, he overcommitted, and found himself falling onto a perfect counter right that flattened him.
Unfortunately for Gill, he’d finish the year by taking another shellacking from Kiko Martinez, and this time with no stunning comeback to rescue him- but this one will be in his highlight reel forever.

Performance of the year

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I’m going to cheat a little bit here. Obviously, obviously, the performance of the year was Dmitry Bivol’s complete outclassing of Canelo back in May. He was expected- by most- to lose, and instead he turned in a show in which he outclassed the consensus p4p number 1 in about every phase of the game. Even taking his size advantage into account, it was pure class, and should be top of everyone’s list.
But everyone knows that, we’ve all seen it, and talked about it to death, so I’m gonna highlight Kenshiro Teraji’s flashbang performance in his win over Hiroto Kyoguchi. It was so cool. Going in, it was billed- quite rationally - as a 50/50 contest between the two top fighters at light fly. If anything, Teraji- who’d suffered a shock loss to Masamichi Yabuki in 2021 before getting revenge earlier last year- seemed the more vulnerable one, a proneness to abandon his strengths and get stuck in the pocket with his feet set a potentially bad idea against the composed pocket boxer that Kyoguchi is.
Instead, all the pieces came together for Kenshiro. Most notably, the footwork which had previously gotten too easily static became flowing, incessant, and reliably on point. Rather than stop straight in front of his opponent to deliver shots, he’d be setting up the escape angle even as he approached, leaving Kyoguchi as the one stranded in the pocket while Teraji jabbed his way in, stepped around and delivered shots from just a little too far to respond. Coupled with a jab that had always been his greatest tool and a speed and explosive power that he hadn’t always shown, it left Kyoguchi without answers and looking outclassed, and with the knockout coming in the seventh round Teraji racked up the kind of signature win that should have him considered him for the fringes of the p4p lists at least, if not quite there yet. He’ll be wanting to unify the division, so hopefully fights with fellow champions Jonathan Gonzalez or Shivenathi Nontshinga (spoilers: more on him later) can come together in 2023- though on the back of this, you couldn’t blame anyone for being wary of stepping in with him. Whatever comes next, though, he’s built himself a solid foundation with this one.

Fighter of the Year

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Much like the previous category, the answer here is obviously Dmitry Bivol. He was supposed to lose to Canelo, instead he put in a dominant performance to vault himself into p4p contention, and then followed it up by schooling Zurdo Ramirez in November. Previously to this, he’d mostly put in performances that, while slick, relied on keeping his distance and jabbing and poking his way to victory, but here he didn’t just do that, but beat both his opponents in their preferred wheelhouse, in the pocket. He proved a masterful ability to marry attack and defence into one movement, and a knack for timing on both the small scale (I’m going to hit you now) and the larger (you want to press? No, I’m disappearing… until you need a breath, and now I’m in your face) that really upset Canelo’s gameplans. It was a masterful set of performances, and he fully deserves his spot here.

Fight of the year

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Well, since we had a good year, it stands to reason there should be a few candidates for fight of the year. And there are. Many will be highlighting that war between Conlan and Wood, or Taylor and Serrano’s relentless scrap back in April. There’s one though, that’s been overlooked by many, mostly because for all the progress there has been in building momentum for the lower weight classes, light flyweight almost seems to be a step too far.
So, if you haven’t seen it, go and watch the fantastic, brutal, highly skilled war between Shivenathi Nontshinga and Hector Flores. The two men went at it for all 12 rounds, a constant feast of pocket boxing garnished with busy clinch work. It wasn’t just a simple tear-up either- there were switches of momentum, smart adjustments and recoveries throughout. Knowing some of the backstory makes it even more impressive, too- we won’t dwell on it, but Nontshinga was quite lucky to even be here, having melted against aggressive pressure in his previous fight and fortunate to have got the victory then. This time, he clearly didn’t want to be in a war, but when it became clear it was going to be one, he held it together, aided by another example of sterling work from his corner, gritted his teeth, and pushed through.
It was, put simply, two top-level performances coming together into one smashing fight, and if you haven’t seen it, you should treat yourself.

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