Top Boxers Have the Sport in a Good Place
If nothing else, 2024 can be remembered for being the year where we briefly got to see an undisputed heavyweight champion. While the politics of the sport spoiled Oleksandr Usyk’s reign, the fact that a fight for all the heavyweight belts happened at once was amazing.
The boxing news latest headlines were filled with a number of high-profile bouts during this calendar year. The takeaway for this era of boxing may be that the fighters and promoters have learned something. During the pandemic, there were a lot of concerns that the sport may be moving in the direction of having more sideshow style of fights, much like the ones with Jake Paul.
But there are now a lot of fights and fighters who people believe may be willing to match up. With the influx of money into the sport from Saudi Arabia, there may be enough juice to make some big-time fights happen. But can people maintain the momentum built up this year?
What is nice about the group that boxing has at the top right now is that the wealth isn’t stuck all in one weight class. There are a number of top fighters split through all the divisions.
Can Fury Force a Trilogy?
Tyson Fury is one of those fighters who is hard to take your eyes off. Never mind his natural charisma, Fury is an excellent showman and knows how to draw eyeballs to his fights.
Fury has a different body type, appearing more like a blue-collar laborer than a heavyweight champion, but heavyweight boxing news shows he has been one of the top fighters in the world for many years. While Fury has flirted with retirement several times, he may be more motivated than ever.
While the scorecards reflect that people saw the fight in different lights, there is little disagreement among neutral viewers that Usyk beat Fury last time. Usyk scored the only knockout and wore down Fury in the later rounds.
The rematch will do strong business and should be good for the sport. Usyk has been showing more of his personality during recent press conferences, and the more he shows off his sense of humor, the better things may get for him.
Bivol Wants Another Shot at Beterbiev
Dmitry Bivol wants his mandatory rematch in the contract that was agreed to in his contract with Artur Beterbiev. The IBF is insisting that Beterbiev fight their mandatory challenger instead. Because of how close their fight was earlier this year, the online boxing news community is also clamoring for a rematch.
This is an opportunity for Beterbiev, who picked up a controversial decision during their fight, to show that he is a better fighter than Bivol. While the fight was close, many people felt that Bivol was the more consistent boxer. Beterbiev’s ability to land powerful punches may have won over the judges.
Beterbiev winning a majority decision over Bivol was a major shock. During Beterbiev’s 20-fight winning streak to start his career, he won all of his fights by knockout. Beating Bivol on the scorecards was a major step forward for his career.
He was able to show that he could go the distance. Proving that he could win that fight twice would be an impressive thing to watch. Bivol also would like to get revenge. Bivol suffered some embarrassment in the days following the fight when his wife posted a series of videos on social media celebrating his loss. Bivol would like to get another win to reclaim his reputation as one of the strongest boxers in the world.
Canelo is Still Active
Canelo Alvarez has been one of the most important boxers in the world for nearly a decade. Besides his incredible activity level, Canelo has risen to the top of the world thanks to his success, which includes a sizable following of Mexican fans. What makes Canelo such an exciting fighter is his ability to fight across several weight classes.
There has been a lot of talk about Canelo fighting Chris Eubank Jr. next. However, there are other forces at work trying to get him to take on Terence Crawford. The prospects of so many different fights makes for good drama as all sides attempt to make the best deal possible.
Crawford Has Something Left in the Tank
Crawford’s destruction of Errol Spence Jr. in 2023 caught the world by storm. It wasn’t just the fact that Crawford won that stood out to people. What excited boxing fans was how Crawford, 37, laid a beating on Spence over nine rounds.
When the fight was stopped, Crawford improved his record to 41-0, including 31 knockouts. During his career, Crawford has been adamant about not being involved in any type of specialty fight. There was some talk that Conor McGregor had offered a two-fight deal for one boxing and one MMA fight.
However, anyone looking at MMAfighting latest news shows that Crawford turned that deal down. Crawford has plenty to do in the boxing ring and would like to make the most of the opportunities he has left.
Stevenson Seeking New Path for Career
Shakur Stevenson made the decision to separate from Top Rank. While Stevenson came into boxing with a lot of excitement due to his strong amateur background, the enthusiasm for his fights has tapered off recently. Stevenson has been involved in a pair of title fights that many people thought were boring.
However, switching promoters may provide some new avenues for Stevenson. When it comes to impressing boxing fans, there isn’t too much a fighter needs to do to win them back other than get a few knockouts under their belt.
Stevenson is still young enough to change the narrative of his career. Seeing how Stevenson is able to do that should be an exciting watch over the past few years.
Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.
By Dean McHugh.