In this week’s mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on whether BoxingScene’s team made the right pick in selecting Terence Crawford as fighter of the year, how competitive the upcoming super fight between Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani will be based on how each looked in their past fights, whether Subriel Matias is ripe for a loss in his upcoming title defense against Dalton Smith, and if a proposed bout between heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and former titleholder Deontay Wilder is pointless.
Want to be featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.
TERENCE CRAWFORD SHOULDN’T BE FIGHTER OF THE YEAR
Naoya Inoue beat Ring Magazine’s second-, third- and fifth-ranked fighters in his division – after already beating the number-one guy in 2023. Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez beat Ring’s number-one and number-four fighters. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was the Ring super-middleweight champion, but he had artificially extended his stay at the top by ducking David Benavidez, who beats him easily, and Canelo knew it.
Canelo hadn’t fought a top guy for four years when Terence Crawford fought him. A good win for sure, but a bit of smoke and mirrors. I would pick guys who are fighting multiple top contenders with different styles as opposed to one good, fading fighter no matter the weight jump.
-daggum
Lance Pugmire’s response: While our selection was democratic (“BoxingScene’s 2025 Fighter of the Year”), I agree with you. Crawford made great use of his extra time in calculating that basically inflating up three weight classes from his undisputed welterweight victory over Errol Spence Jnr in the summer of 2023 was a worthwhile time investment. He fought only once this year, 13 months after winning a 154lbs title. And it was a sublime performance on boxing’s biggest stage – the NFL’s Allegiant Stadium.
That said, Inoue fought four times in 2025 – stopping a game Ramon Cardenas and winning comfortable decisions against former unified titleholder Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev and WBC mandatory Alan David Picasso of Mexico on Saturday. In my opinion, the fighter of the year needs to fight more than once, especially when a fellow undisputed champion enters the ring four times – and wins them all.
As for “Bam,” his 10th-round TKO of fellow junior-bantamweight titleholder Phumelela Cafu and 10th-round knockout of another titlist, Fernando “Puma” Martinez, was similarly impressive and more diverse. Not diminishing the quality and skill of Alvarez, but he is certainly trending downward. It will be interesting to see how the more populous Boxing Writers Association of America votes on this topic in January.
NAOYA INOUE WILL DISMANTLE JUNTO NAKATANI
Naoya Inoue basically sleepwalked through the number-five contender in a division where he's already beaten number one, number two and number four – and he’s upset at his performance. He’s going to dismantle Junto Nakatani.
-famicommander
Lucas Ketelle’s response: Naoya Inoue is one of the special boxers of this era, and really any era. A lot of his feats don’t seem as incredible as they should. He has normalized brilliance. Inoue’s timing and reflexes are those of an all-time great. An example of how to time a fighter, even if he only throws at one speed. Inoue is an active titleholder fighting multiple times a year, something that has become less common for ATG-level fighters.
Yet I have a funny feeling that Inoue-Junto Nakatani will be a very close fight. Despite everything going in Inoue’s favor, let’s not forget he is 32 years old. It isn’t that old, but in the lower weight classes, that is considered an older fighter. Nakatani is 27. Typically, in bouts like this, if Inoue and Nakatani do fight, the younger, talented fighter wins. At least, that is what history says, and it is hard to believe with the amount of risks Inoue continues to take that he can be perfect for his entire career.
So despite Nakatani having a hard fight with Sebastian Hernandez, I think the stage is set for a classic, as Nakatani will be underrated heading into a bout with Inoue. Remember, styles make fights, and it appears Hernandez’s style gives Nakatani issues. But that isn’t the same style as Inoue (as silly as that might sound).
Or I could be wrong, and Inoue could have another great performance, showing why he is one of the best of the modern era, alongside Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk. Somehow, Inoue-Nakatani got more interesting despite a performance that might have some thinking the bout is more one-sided than ever.
INOUE-PICASSO WAS SPARRING; INOUE-BAM TALK IS POINTLESS
I thought Inoue could have stepped on the gas pedal and knocked Picasso out. Picasso clearly doesn't have power and Inoue was just sleepwalking through the fight. I think Inoue got bored and forgot he was supposed to knock Picasso out. Because every thudding punch Inoue landed had Picasso backing up and covering. This was basically a sparring session for Inoue, and he will have no problem with Junto Nakatani.
I do wish people would stop saying Inoue needs to fight Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Bam is kinda small for Inoue and he would just lose to him decisively. There are weight classes for a reason, and I can't envision Bam hanging in there for 12 rounds with someone who has thunderous power.
-RockyKO
Jake Donovan’s response: The fact that we’ve basically seen close to identical performances in back-to-back fights for Inoue tells me this is just where he’s at in his career. This was also Inoue’s busiest campaign since his first full pro year. Fighters who’ve gone even from two to three fights in a calendar year have complained by the third that they felt the physical effect.
I reluctantly agree – reluctant only because, as a reporter, I don’t like to make these predictions, even objectively – that a super fight with Junto Nakatani tends to trend more heavily in his favor. I had the opposite belief after their respective wins over Ramon Cardenas and Ryosuke Nishida earlier this year. Seeing a more defensively responsible Inoue in dominant wins over Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Alan David Picasso, however, leaves me curious as to what key adjustments can be made by the comparatively more offense-minded Nakataki.
The beauty is that neither has fought anyone who represents the other – as Naoya and Junto are remarkably unique, pound-for-pound talents.
I’m in full agreement on the thought of Inoue-Bam being a waste of time even discussing. Not sure why DAZN and media members keep pushing that ridiculous narrative.
IS SUBRIEL MATIAS PRIMED FOR A LOSS TO DALTON SMITH?
Subriel Matias has looked lately like his punch resistance and stamina are not the same. Either Dalton Smith shines or he folds; it might be the right time, though. Alberto Puello, whom Matias edged for the title, is a harder fighter than most give him credit for, and his drug-test failure issue derailed him a bit.
-Street Cleaner
Owen Lewis’ response: You might be right. Matias earned his boogeyman reputation through a steel chin and an inexhaustible gas tank – you’d hit him with your best punch several times, only for him to walk through it and keep whaling away at you. Eventually your defenses broke down. At its best, the style was devastatingly effective, but it was never one that was going to age particularly well.
Matias is 33, but in a fighter’s terms, he’s almost certainly older. Getting hit with a flush shot does not come without a cost, even if the fighter appears unhurt in the moment. He struggled in the first round with Roberto Ramirez. And like you, the Puello fight stuck out to me. Matias might have won, and he might have commanded a long string of middle rounds. But Puello managed to weather those rounds and finish stronger, which simply does not happen in Matias slugfests (Liam Paro managed to school him without taking too much damage). If Matias is indeed slowing down, we’ll all look back at the Puello fight as a data point in hindsight.
It’s impossible to ignore Matias’ positive test for ostarine, too, even if the levels were low enough that his fight with Smith is still on. Every time a fighter tests positive is a body blow to boxing, but it stings even more when that fighter relies so heavily on a seemingly endless reserve of stamina or power. Where exactly did that reserve come from? With Matias, the positive test is darker still given that one of his former opponents, Maxim Dadashev, died from a brain injury after Matias stopped him in 11 rounds.
So if I’m Dalton Smith, I’m going into the Matias fight very warily, and expecting the full-strength version to show up in the ring. If the Puerto Rican is once again uncharacteristically tired in the final rounds, that’ll simply be a bonus.
WHAT’S THE POINT OF USYK VS. WILDER?
Oleksandr Usyk will stop Deontay Wilder. Wilder’s got no defense and he can’t pull the trigger anymore. He only has one punch – the right hand from a distance – and that was when he could pull the trigger.
-elf
Lance Pugmire’s response: I see this more as Usyk wanting to complete a resume against a well-known former heavyweight titleholder who reigned from 2015 until his 2020 knockout loss to Tyson Fury. Wilder has not been the same since that loss, but he does still possess the most impressive “hammer” that the division has seen during this generation, and I’m sure that the unbeaten, competitive Usyk wants to see how his style will fare against that powerful Wilder asset before he retires.
Wilder has proven he’s content to wait out an opponent who’s more skilled in the sweet science to land the monster punch that can close the night. The issue with two-time undisputed champion Usyk is that he’s so adept at picking apart his foes that Wilder won’t be able to drag out the process. Has his trigger slowed at age 40? Yes, but it’s still there, and despite his diminished returns in recent years, there remains intrigue in seeing how these styles mesh with enough name recognition to ensure the bout sells in the US.
Want to be featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.
