One year ago, I wrote these words as 2024 drew to a close: “Welcome to the first annual Raskies, an awards column that honors the best, worst and weirdest of the year that was, courtesy of BoxingScene’s washed-est of scribes.”
Well, the Raskies are back to put a bow on 2025, and the scribe delivering them is washed-er than ever.
How much difference can one year make? Plenty, as the inaugural Raskies were handed out by a relatively youthful man in his 40s, whereas this year’s edition is penned by a fossil in his 50s.
That fossil is staring at his computer screen through progressive lenses, experiencing the faint pain of elbow tendinitis with each keystroke and getting up from his desk more frequently than ever to go to the bathroom and then wait longer than ever for the stream to begin.
He is so very, very washed.
But enough about the guy handing out the Raskies. These awards – all year-end boxing awards, really – are about the fighters who lay their bodies on the line for our entertainment.
So let’s dive into the 2025 Raskies – all the best, worst and weirdest of this magnificent, awful, perpetually bizarre sport:
Fighter of the year: I should note that BoxingScene has been giving out official site awards in all the major categories the last few days, so there is some overlap with the Raskies – although the winners won’t always be the same. In this case, though, we’re aligned. The Raskie goes to Terence Crawford. Do I love giving it to somebody who fought only once? No. But nobody else – not even Naoya Inoue, who fought and won four times – did quite enough to top “Bud’s” singular win over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. And if Crawford’s retirement while in his prime and healthy and undefeated is to be believed and trusted, then that counts as a spectacular second victory on the year.
Hard luck fighter of the year: Lamont Roach. First he got screwed by Steve Willis’ refereeing malpractice, when Willis decided that the rules of the prize ring don’t apply to Gervonta Davis and granted “Tank” a time-out on what should have been scored a knockdown. Then Roach got arguably slightly unlucky to settle for a draw on the scorecards. And then he absorbed a second draw against Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz in a fight Roach probably deserved to win. It’s nearly unfathomable that Roach fought as well as he did, twice, and finished the year without a single victory.
The Biff Tannen award for stealing someone else’s date: This goes to David Benavidez, who promptly announced after stopping Anthony Yarde that he’d next be facing Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in Las Vegas on Cinco de Mayo weekend 2026. I respect the play. If Canelo refuses to dance with you, then you may as well cut in and take his date. (I’m kinda mixing metaphors, and Back to the Future scenes, but you get the idea.)
Most punchable face award: In 2024, Rolly Romero captured this great honor for the ninth year in a row. But I’ve decided that when Romero upset Ryan Garcia in May, he also transferred ownership of this award. And by declaring a few months later that Gennadiy Golovkin didn’t deserve to get into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Garcia made himself maximally worthy of a good, hard smack on the kisser.
Fight of the year: I may be the only one picking this fight, but for me it’s Naoya Inoue KO8 Ramon Cardenas in May, to save an otherwise horrendous Cinco de Mayo boxing weekend. This was true edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-your-throat stuff if you watched it live, having no idea what would happen next. Which leads me to an important caveat …
The maybe you had to be there award: This goes to Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn I, which seems to be the most popular pick for FOY. I didn’t watch it live. I saw it the next day, already knowing the result. And perhaps partially as a result of that, I didn’t (and still don’t) understand the fuss.
The apparently nobody wants to fight him award: Agit Kabayel, who walloped Zhilei Zhang in February and hasn’t been able to get any heavyweight of consequence to pick up the phone since.
The apparently everybody wants to fight him award: Mario Barrios, who’s making one heck of a living as a pay-per-view B-side and a welterweight-belt-cherry-picker’s dream.
Knockout of the year: Brian Norman Jnr KO5 Jin Sasaki – a left hook KO so beautiful and brutal that it tricked me and the oddsmakers into very incorrectly favoring Norman over Devin Haney a few months later.
Why you shouldn’t rely on Google’s AI results when searching for contenders for Knockout of the Year: Because one result it offered was, “Territory Gasev vs. Pulb (Late 2025): Gasev landed a single, crushing shot on the jaw for a one-punch knockout.” It’s refreshing to see that, for now, AI remains capable of being every bit as stupid as humans.
The Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano II award for taking advantage of a massive viewing audience: Christian Mbilli-Lester Martinez on the Crawford-Canelo undercard.
The maybe we’ve found his ceiling award: Diego Pacheco.
Female fighter of the year: It’s time to make a shameful admission: I read Lucas Ketelle’s write-up over the weekend naming BoxingScene’s top female fighter of the year, and I had not heard of the winner prior to that. But now that I’ve heard of Elif Nur Turhan and Ketelle has properly educated me on her credentials – three KO wins over three previously undefeated opponents – I think she’s the correct choice. Turhan just edges last year’s winner, Gabriela Fundora (who went 2-0 with 2 KOs in 2025 and didn’t lose a round on any judge’s scorecard), and Shadasia Green (who scored an inspiring split decision upset over Savannah Marshall in July).
Best acting performance by a non-boxer in a boxing movie nobody saw: Sydney Sweeney in Christy.
Most serviceable acting performance by an actual boxer in an MMA movie nobody saw: Oleksandr Usyk in The Smashing Machine.
The Gary Russell Jnr award for fighting once, looking pretty good and not fighting again: Well, what do you know?! This one goes to Gary Russell Jnr! And finishing in a close second place: Gary Antuanne Russell.
Round of the year: There were plenty of scintillating rounds in high-profile fights this year, but my winner comes from something decidedly more obscure. In a six-rounder deep on a Most Valuable Prospects card in South Padre Island, Texas, in October, Sebastian Juarez KO’d Demarcus Layton with one second left on the clock in the first and only round of the fight, a round that featured four knockdowns, two point deductions, maximum absurdity and a distinct lack of pugilistic art. It was ugly but it was unforgettable, and you should absolutely take three minutes out of your day to watch it if you haven’t seen it yet.
The Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Sturm award for almost blowing a superfight but the judges came through for him: Junto Nakatani vs. Sebastian Hernandez, keeping Inoue-Nakatani alive at the end of 12 rounds that could have gone either way.
Grossest scorecard of the year: Nawaf Almohaimeed’s 118-110 in the aforementioned Nakatani-Hernandez fight is the easy winner here, as the Saudi judge conveniently gave 10 rounds to a boxer nobody on the internet could find more than seven rounds for.
Best losing effort against a P4P elite fighter: I’ll make it three awards in a row recognizing Hernandez for what he did against Nakatani – with apologies to quality runners-up Cardenas (vs. Inoue) and William Zepeda (vs. Shakur Stevenson).
Worst losing effort against a P4P elite fighter: William Scull vs. Canelo Alvarez.
Upset of the year: Jose Armando Resendiz was as much as a +1100 underdog vs. Caleb Plant in May and went on to win a split decision that very clearly should have been unanimous. Boxing insiders understood going in that Resendiz was better than his record and reputation and that Plant was past his best, but … nobody saw this coming.
The Jennifer Grey’s nose-job career self-sabotage award: Ref Tony Weeks got this one in 2024, but for 2025, I’m giving it to a fighter. And with all due respect to Keyshawn Davis, Ryan Garcia and Martin Bakole, it’s Tank Davis who takes down the top prize for successfully firing bullets at his own feet this year.
The Raskin column that didn’t get nearly enough social media traction so I’m sharing it again award: “Stranger things: Just wait until Netflix goes all-in on boxing.” Some might say there’s nothing more pathetic than getting upset that people didn’t laugh at your jokes so you re-tell the jokes in desperate search of laughter and validation. Luckily for me, I have no pride and don’t flinch at being seen as pathetic.
Unworthy opponent award: Uisma Lima, vs. Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
Perfectly worthy opponent but it was over very quickly anyway award: For the sake of symmetry with Ennis-Lima, I’ll give this to Erickson Lubin against Vergil Ortiz Jnr, but the award could just as easily have gone to Dillian Whyte against Moses Itauma or Tevin Farmer against Floyd Schofield.
Comeback fighter of the year: This is a tough call between two boxers who made very different sorts of comebacks – Devin Haney and Manny Pacquiao. I think just so as not to encourage Pacquiao continuing to fight many more times (and especially not wanting to encourage a rematch with Floyd Mayweather), I’ll give it to Haney.
My name sounds like John Travolta mispronouncing a name award: Adam Azim.
Disappointing fight of the year: This one’s gotta be Taylor-Serrano III. They basically gave us Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield I and Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield II but then completed the trilogy with Evander Holyfield-John Ruiz III.
The boxing death that hit me the hardest award: 2025 sucked in so many ways, and boxing people departing was one of those ways. Among those who died were a beloved Hall of Famer I covered in Ricky Hatton, a beloved Hall of Famer I didn’t cover in Nino Benvenuti, a colleague and friend in Tom Gerbasi, a colleague and … well, a colleague in Michael Katz, and the tragically young Arturo Gatti Jnr. But the one that hit me the hardest had to be George Foreman. I know how naive this sounds, but it kinda felt like George was going to live forever. He was truly larger than life, to the point that it seemed he’d be impervious to death.
The late heroics award: It’s not easy to win one fight in which you trail 89-82, 89-82 and 88-83 and another fight in which you trail 98-92, 96-94 and 95-95 both in the same calendar year, but Fabio Wardley did just that in 2025. (And bonus points for the latter coming against Joseph Parker, who failed his drug test, meaning Wardley’s 11th-round KO spared us a highly anticlimactic no-contest.)
The B-Hop award for looking like he’ll probably still be a world-class fighter at age 50: Erislandy Lara.
Event of the year: You can read my in-depth writeup here. But if you aren’t into clicking links and such, the short answer is Crawford-Alvarez, at Allegiant Stadium and on Netflix.
Best boxing media outlet denied credentials to the event of the year because we now live in a post-shame society: Why, BoxingScene, of course!
And that’ll do it for the 2025 Raskies. Let’s reconvene here in one year’s time for Raskies III. (Possible working subtitles based on other famous threequels: The Washed Scribe Rises, The Search for Schlock, or my personal nonsensical favorite, Thor: Rasknarok.)
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
