There have been times that a punch has been recognised as the knockout of the year on account of the reverberations it was responsible for – perhaps the end of a long-serving champion’s reign, setting up a much hoped-for fight, or ending hopes of another one. There have been others when the knockout of the year is awarded to a transformative punch that dramatically delivered victory from what was on course to be a one-sided defeat. There have been others still, simply on account of how sobering they are – so chilling in their nature that all that matters is not the outcome of the fight, nor where it will take the fighter who won it, but the stricken fighter’s health – that are then remembered purely for the punch’s impact.
It was one such punch that deserves to be remembered as the knockout of 2025 – the one that ended Jai Opetaia-David Nyika, back on January 8. The Australian was fighting back in his home country for the first time since four fights on the road that enhanced his reputation as the finest cruiserweight in the world. Against his relatively late-notice replacement Nyika – from neighbouring New Zealand – Opetaia committed to a shootout in the first big world-title fight of the year and provided the realest of reminders about how brutal a profession they are both in.
Nyika, then 29 years old and at his peak, was an undefeated fighter familiar with Opetaia from their time as amateurs, and fought with an ambition and aggression that demonstrated that he had not only come to win but was confident of doing so and willing to take risks until the final bell. If there are times that it is tempting to conclude that the 30-year-old Opetaia is an under-appreciated boxer it is partly because of his willingness to trade and his fearlessness when he is hurt, and after being hurt by Nyika towards the end of the second round he responded with a recklessness that brought the end closer than it already appeared on course to be.
Opetaia had already punished Nyika in the fourth round when he dropped him for the first time, but instead of Nyika prioritising recovering and surviving, he sought to fight his way out of the pressure he was under and then absorbed successive right-lefts before falling – ominously – to the canvas where he remained motionless for an uncomfortably lengthy period of time and required urgent medical attention.
There have been four occasions on which this writer, while ringside and fearing for a fighter’s life, has endured the unwanted combination of a pounding heart, questioning why the victorious fighter is already celebrating, and anxiously waiting for signs of life from the one who is down. The relief that follows confirmation that they are okay then does too little in the moment; watching Nyika, who Eddie Hearn later said had his eyes open while unconscious, remain so still provided one of the most intense ringside experiences of all.
That Opetaia produced a similarly destructive knockout at the same venue – the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Gold Coast, Australia – to defeat Huseyin Cinkara in December in the latest defence of his IBF cruiserweight title was, incidentally, another of those four. Cinkara had to remain, as a precaution, in hospital, where he was diagnosed with a “small” brain bleed and a “slightly” fractured C1.
A further knockout particularly worthy of acknowledgement came on the night of June 7, when Fabio Wardley, convincingly losing on all three scorecards, stopped Justis Huni with a career-changing right hand 10 rounds into their previously one-sided 12-round contest.
Additional honorable mentions: Frank Martin-Rances Barthelemy; Brian Norman Jnr-Jin Sisaki; Joseph Parker-Fabio Wardley; Ramon Cardenas-Erik Robles Ayala; Marlon Harrington-Bryan Polaco (the latter two featured on the same bill).
ICYMI: Other BoxingScene 2025 year-end award winners
Still to come…
Upset of the year
Promoter of the year
Disappointment of the year
