Terence “Bud” Crawford went out on the ultimate high note.
Having already retired on top as the lineal and unified 168lbs champion and perennial pound-for-king, the 38-year-old switch hitter from Omaha, Nebraska, racked up another honor on his way out the door.
Crawford’s singular win of the year was a big one, his masterpiece of a performance dethroning long-reigning 168lbs champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. It was enough to outpace a very competitive field for BoxingScene’s 2025 Fighter of the Year.
The year began for Crawford, 42-0 (31 KOs), with a bit of uncertainty about his next move. He was a few months removed from arguably the toughest fight of his storied career, a 12-round unanimous decision win over then-unbeaten WBA 154lbs titlist Israil Madrimov. The fight headlined a DAZN pay-per-view event from BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, doubling as Riyadh Season’s first-ever US show.
Crawford walked away from the event as a four-division titlist but with a new and powerful ally who had a big vision for his next fight. Turki Alalshikh was always bullish on the idea of matching Crawford with Alvarez, a dream that became a reality once he was able to secure the Mexican superstar to a multi-fight deal earlier this year.
Alvarez was afforded the chance to regain the IBF title that was stripped from him last year in a May 3 clash with William Scull. Crawford was ringside for the event in Riyadh, having opted to forgo an interim fight to instead wait out the result.
The win helped set in motion a September superfight. It required Crawford to move up another two divisions, just one fight removed from advancing from his undisputed 147lbs championship reign to claim a belt at 154lbs.
As he has proven throughout his Hall of Fame-bound career, Crawford was up for the occasion.
He proved it in 2014, when he traveled to Scotland to wrest the WBO 135lbs title from Ricky Burns – the first of a three-win campaign that saw Crawford honored by several outlets as the 2014 Fighter of the Year (BoxingScene selected Naoya Inoue). One year later, Crawford embarked on a run at 140lbs that eventually ended with his becoming just the second male boxer in history to claim all four major titles (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO) at a single weight division.
By July 2023, Crawford made history as the only male boxer to accomplish that same feat at two weights. He did so in what served at the time as his finest hour, a one-sided ninth-round knockout of unbeaten Errol Spence Jnr to fully unify the 147lbs division.
Crawford’s two-division full undisputed championship status was matched by Inoue later that year, then by Oleksandr Usyk the following May. Fittingly, the trio of unbeaten all-time greats have dominated the pound-for-pound field, to the point that virtually nobody else has even entered the conversation for top three since 2023.
They also make up the last three Fighter of the Year winners. Inoue edged out Crawford in 2023, while Usyk was a nearly unanimous pick among all outlets in 2024.
This year was Crawford’s turn to brush past his competition – in the ring and in races such as this.
Fittingly, the standout moment of his career – his win over Alvarez – took place in front of by far his largest in-person and viewing audience.
His 12-round masterpiece headlined a Netflix event that drew a global audience of more than 41,000,000 viewers, making it the most-watched men’s championship fight of the 21st century. The fight took place in front of an announced crowd of 70,482 at Allegiant Stadium, home to the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
In the ring, Crawford took care of the rest. His movement and hand speed gave fits to the seemingly heavy-footed Alvarez, and he never trailed on any of the cards beyond the third round. Alvarez pulled even on a couple of occasions before Crawford swept the proverbial championship rounds to prevail by scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112.
As our honorable mention section will show, most of the other candidates had busier years, while others claimed feats significant to the future of the sport.
All fell just short of the magic that Crawford was able to create in September and – for now – his final time in the ring.
High honorable mention:
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. The only other candidate on this list to earn any first place votes from the BoxingScene staff members (two), San Antonio’s Rodriguez, 23-0 (16 KOs), joined Crawford as the only finalist who didn’t even fight during the first six months of the year. His back-half of 2025 more than made up for it, with back-to-back title-unifying knockout victories over the previously unbeaten Phumelela Cafu and Fernando “Puma” Martinez to add the WBO and WBA belts to his lineal and WBC 115lbs championship reign.
Naoya Inoue. Japan’s Inoue became the first male fighter since Brian Mitchell to make four lineal championship defenses in a single calendar year. The unbeaten four-division and reigning undisputed 122lbs king defeated the likes of Ye-Joon Kim, Ramon Cardenas, former unified titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev and unbeaten David Picasso to wrap up his busiest campaign since 2013, Inoue’s first full year as a pro.
Best of the rest (in alphabetical order):
David Benavidez. After years of waiting on an Alvarez showdown that never materialized, Phoenix’s Benavidez, 31-0 (25 KOs), marched to his own beat in 2025. In his second fight at light heavyweight, the former two-time 168lbs titlist turned away David Morrell Jnr in a thriller this past February. He was subsequently upgraded from interim to full WBC titlist at the weight, defending the belt in a dominant knockout win over Anthony Yarde in November in Riyadh. Still only 29, he has already plotted a 2026 FOTY run, as Benavidez is due to challenge WBA/WBO cruiserweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on May 2 in Las Vegas.
Dmitry Bivol. At one point a top-three candidate in this race, Bivol, 24-1 (12 KOs), did not get back in the ring after a February 22 win over Artur Beterbiev to become undisputed 175lbs champ and avenge his lone defeat. He was forced to give up his WBC belt for failure to face Benavidez and he spent the rest of 2025 recovering from surgery for a herniated disc in his back.
Devin Haney. “Deebo” found himself in the unique year-end position of resurrecting his career despite having never officially lost a fight. Haney, 32-0 (15 KOs), saw the industry turn its back on him after a loss-turned-no-contest with an overweight and heavily juiced Ryan Garcia last April. His lethargic points win over Jose Ramirez in May didn’t help his cause. What helped tremendously was his WBO 147lbs title win over unbeaten knockout artist Brian Norman Jnr, whom he dropped early and outboxed en route to becoming a triple-division titleholder on the Benavidez-Yarde card in Riyadh.
Junto Nakatani. The FOTY leader of the pack through June, Nakatani, 32-0 (22 KOs), failed to add to his lead after a debatable points win over Sebastian Hernandez on the December 27 Inoue-Picasso Riyadh Season card. However, his knockout victories over David Cuellar and countryman Ryosuke Nishida – the latter to unify the WBC and IBF 118lbs titles – were too good to leave him off this list.
Fabio Wardley. One of the sport’s most remarkable success stories, Wardley continues to find ways to win. The blue-collar fighter officially advanced from “learn as you earn” to the reigning WBO heavyweight titlist. His two wins on the year both required in-fight comebacks, as he avoided disaster with a bailout 10th-round knockout of Justis Huni atop a June 7 homecoming show in Ipswich, England. He then dug deep to stop former WBO titlist Joseph Parker in the 11th round of their October 25 thriller at London’s O2 Arena. The win saw him net the WBO interim title, later upgraded to the full version when Usyk opted to head in a different direction.
