Comments Thread For: Who will be the Fighter of 2025? BoxingScene contributors make their picks

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Of the guys most frequently mentioned in this article, Bam makes the most sense. Since he could fight the Martinez-Ioka winner and Chocolatito-Cafu winner.
Shakur will not fight Schofield then fight Tank and Zepeda in the same year; too many politics going against that.
Inoue doesn't have the opposition available for him to claim fighter of the year for 2025. The fact that people are trying to hype up the Akhmadaliev fight says it all. MJ would not be considered a major opponent for other P4P guys.

BUT IMO, if the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol fights the winner of Benavidez-Morrell this year then they for sure should get it. That would be an incredible year.
One of them mentioned it in this article, but they only had the scenario for Benavidez when it would be a great feat for any of the four. Benavidez may not even beat Morrell. I think Beterbiev and Bivol both beat him, so idk why they're just making it all about Benavidez.

Other candidates could be Usyk, Dubois, Parker, Crawford (if somehow manages to fight and beat Canelo), Opetaia or Ramirez (if one of them becomes undisputed).

[JeBron Lamez]

Inoue can't do it in Japan. The home town edge will always be considered an unfair advantage.

Only by Americans

[JeBron Lamez]

I just love the fact that there are quite a few fighters who one could imagine being the 2025 Fighter of the Year

[1Eriugenus]

To me, the best contenders are Inoue & 'Bam' Rodriguez because they always want smoke. But if Terence steps up & defeats Canelo then he is just gonna be the man & either Inoue or 'Bam' is gonna have to do something very, ridiculously, special to top that.

[1Eriugenus]

'BUT IMO, if the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol fights the winner of Benavidez-Morrell this year then they for sure should get it. That would be an incredible year.
One of them mentioned it in this article, but they only had the scenario for Benavidez when it would be a great feat for any of the four. Benavidez may not even beat Morrell. I think Beterbiev and Bivol both beat him, so idk why they're just making it all about Benavidez'

Because if (IMO when) Morrell beats Benavidez neither the winner or loser of Beterbiev-Bivol fights goes near him. If Benavidez beats Morrell & goes on to beat the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol II he would have a great case to be fighter of the year but, IMO, that is so unlikely as to be purely philosophical.

[Joseph]

Because if (IMO when) Morrell beats Benavidez neither the winner or loser of Beterbiev-Bivol fights goes near him.

I like Morrell, but that's a hot take. What makes you think they would avoid him?

[wrecksracer]

it's like some of these guys haven't watched Shakur fight. He has absolutely no problem stinking the joint up. He will never be in a "fight of the year" nor will he ever be "fighter of the year." Give me Bam Rodriguez or Inoue.

[crimsonfalcon07]

Of the guys most frequently mentioned in this article, Bam makes the most sense. Since he could fight the Martinez-Ioka winner and Chocolatito-Cafu winner.
Shakur will not fight Schofield then fight Tank and Zepeda in the same year; too many politics going against that.
Inoue doesn't have the opposition available for him to claim fighter of the year for 2025. The fact that people are trying to hype up the Akhmadaliev fight says it all. MJ would not be considered a major opponent for other P4P guys.

BUT IMO, if the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol fights the winner of Benavidez-Morrell this year then they for sure should get it. That would be an incredible year.
One of them mentioned it in this article, but they only had the scenario for Benavidez when it would be a great feat for any of the four. Benavidez may not even beat Morrell. I think Beterbiev and Bivol both beat him, so idk why they're just making it all about Benavidez.

Other candidates could be Usyk, Dubois, Parker, Crawford (if somehow manages to fight and beat Canelo), Opetaia or Ramirez (if one of them becomes undisputed).

MJ is a former unified champion and the #2 Ring. Many would consider Spence a good win at 147/154 even coming off a devastating beating. Or Loma is the #2 Ring at 135. Is he a good win? And what if Inoue beats Goodman, MJ, and then Junto Nakatani? Maybe with Picasso thrown in for good measure? That's one or two undefeated top contenders, a former unified champion, and a fellow P4P star. He'd have completely cleaned out two divisions in a row, then taken out the guy who looks most likely to be the next big thing. Who else can say that they have taken on the best in their divisional debut multiple times and then completely cleaned out two divisions of all credible opponents, all while scoring more 10-8 rounds than their opponents have scored 10-9 rounds against them?

Bam certainly has a chance if he's active, but Inoue's current schedule is the Ring #3/BoxRec #3 Goodman, MJ is Ring #2, BoxRec #6, Picasso is Ring #6, BoxRec #4, and Nakatani is #1 with both and quite possibly will be Ring champion by the time they fight if he can get Nishida. Maybe he'll even be undisputed at 118. That's a BIG year.

The winner of Beterbiev v Bivol will likely only fight twice tops. If that second fight is the winner of Benavidez v Morrell, they'll have taken on the top 2 contenders in the division, which isn't exactly stacked. That would still be solid, but what if Benavidez v Morrell is really lackluster, for instance? Most of the other top guys simply aren't fighting ranked opponents or fighting 3 or more times a year.

[HandsofIron]

Bam

Also, Shakur's not a fighter, he's a marathon runner.

[Elheath]

Kinda hard to predict this early given that unlike other sports you don't really have a set schedule of when and who people will fight.

Bam's issue is that he'll have to wait until the 2nd half of the year to get any unifications, and his fight defense will likely be a random voluntary and he is not guaranteed to get three fights either.

Though not mentioned in the article, Nakatani's best case scenario would be Cuellar followed by Nishida then Tsutsumi unification. If one of the latter two isn't happening then perhaps an Estrada defense but he really needs an unification somewhere.

Inoue is mostly set with Goodman in Tokyo this month, Picasso in Vegas around May and who knows, MJ in Saudi around October? All signs point to Nakatani being early 2026 and not this year.

Shakur got Schofield followed by Zepeda best case, but I really don't see him easily getting Tank that easily nor do I expect him to fight 3 times this year.

Usyk got maybe two fights, one against winner of Parker/Dubois and another against...who knows? If he really plans on going back down to cruiserweight then might have Opetaia or possibly a Beterbiev, but that is likely the best case IF opponents I won't bank on.