We are in the seventh month of a boxing calendar that goes year round, and that means it's time to pick the best moments of the first half of 2025, including best performances, KOs, and, yes, biggest disappointments -- so far.
There have been many exciting and entertaining fights, and a couple of fighters have put themselves in the driving seat to earn end-of-the-year awards. There have been big spectacles, fights for undisputed championships and a few prospects that may have made the jump to being contenders.
Andreas Hale and Nick Parkinson make their picks for the best moments at the halfway point of the year.
Best fight
Hale: Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn. It's rare that a fight between bitter rivals exceeds the hype, but that's exactly what Eubank Jr.'s exhilarating back-and-forth encounter with Benn delivered at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in April. The fight was ripe with storylines, as the sons of middleweight legends Chris Eubank Sr. and Nigel Benn inherited their fathers' beef and throttled each other for 12 high-octane rounds. After years of a reportedly strained relationship with his father, Eubank Jr. arrived at the venue alongside him to set the tone for the fight, and the ensuing grudge match left over 67,000 fans clamoring for more. Benn started off hot, but Eubank Jr. clawed his way back into the fight by picking up the activity and pulled away in the second half to earn a hard-fought unanimous decision. Fights with this much hype often fall short when the leather starts flying inside of the ring. Not this one. This was a grudge match that exceeded expectations.
Parkinson: Fabio Wardley vs. Justis Huni. There were higher-profile candidates such as Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev, but heavyweight contender Wardley's come-from-behind KO win over Huni was a really enjoyable see-saw scrap to watch. Wardley was losing the fight on all three judges' scorecards -- 89-82, 89-82 and 88-83 -- in front of his home fans in Ipswich, England, until he landed a huge right hand to the jaw that sent the Australian to the canvas. Huni had been cruising toward a decision win after dominating the earlier rounds with his more educated boxing. But in heavyweight boxing, one punch changes everything, as Wardley demonstrated. It was a riveting contest that produced a spectacular KO.
Best fighter
Parkinson: Dmitry Bivol. Bivol learned from his mistake of last year's decision loss to Beterbiev, when his punch output dropped in the latter rounds. In February's rematch, Bivol was more intense and sustained his pressure until the final bell to ensure he won by majority decision, gain revenge and be crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion. Bivol was sharper with his punches and better with his movement than Beterbiev. Both displayed profound technical ability and bravery, but Bivol edged it with his sharp counters and energy. Francisco Rodriguez Jr. also deserves a mention for his unanimous decision win over Galal Yafai in England in June. The former strawweight champion threw more than 1,000 punches and floored Yafai in the final round to win the WBC interim flyweight title. If Rodriguez can continue that form, big fights await in the next year.
Hale: Dmitry Bivol. I agree, Nick. Although Naoya Inoue provided fans with a pair of scintillating knockouts, the honor for best fighter of the year thus far has to go to Bivol. Inoue had a more difficult time than expected against Ramon Cardenas in May, enduring a knockdown before earning a late stoppage. But Bivol had to make the proper adjustments to dethrone previously unbeaten Beterbiev in a rematch of their closely contested 2024 battle. Bivol made the right adjustments in the rematch, being more aggressive, refusing to give up ground and deploying his pinpoint jab. The result felt a bit more definitive than their first meeting, which Beterbiev won by majority decision. The win was necessary to keep Bivol entrenched in the pound-for-pound conversation and set up a trilogy fight between two of the best light heavyweights in the world.
Best KO
Hale: Brian Norman Jr. KOs Jin Sasaki. Norman Jr. gets the nod from me. His brutal fifth-round knockout of Sasaki last month set the bar extraordinarily high for the rest of the competition this year. Norman entered the fight looking to stake his claim as the best welterweight in the world, and the 24-year-old made his case by landing a crushing left hook on Sasaki's chin that turned his lights out in devastating fashion. It was such a brutal knockout that Sasaki said afterward he couldn't remember what happened in the six weeks prior to the fight. With absolutely ridiculous power, Norman put the entire 147-pound division on notice.
Parkinson: Brian Norman Jr. KOs Jin Sasaki. There's also the way Norman performed in that fight. If there were any doubts about how legitimate Norman's credentials were as an elite welterweight, he obliterated them with a single-punch KO of Sasaki. Norman, the WBO welterweight champion, floored Sasaki twice in Round 1 with quick and powerful shots. Then he sent him to the canvas in Round 5, leaving Sasaki flat on his back. It has been a breakout year for Norman, who now can be considered the global boss at welterweight with Jaron "Boots" Ennis set to move up a division.
Best moment
Parkinson: Chris Eubank Jr. arrives at fight with his father, Eubank Sr. When Eubank Sr. emerged from a car with his son Chris Jr. in the bowels of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, hours before Eubank Jr. was due to face Benn in front of 60,000 fans in April, it hit us all like a punch we never saw coming. Father and son had been estranged until earlier that day, and Eubank Jr. had spoken emotionally about the fallout with his dad, a middleweight and super middleweight world champion in the 1990s. So seeing them together, captured live on television and beamed on the big screen at the stadium, came as a shock. You could hear the gasps ripple around the stadium. It was the latest twist in the engaging narrative of the biggest fight to take place in the United Kingdom this year.
Hale: Chris Eubank Jr. arrives at fight with his father, Eubank Sr. You're correct, Nick. Nothing beats witnessing Eubank Jr. exiting a vehicle with his father by his side before he engaged in a grudge match with Benn. The relationship between father and son had been strained for several years, but bad blood brought them back together, as the son inherited his father's feud with the Benn family. Boxing rarely has emotional moments that pull at the heart strings of fans, but this one took the cake.
Most disappointing moment
Parkinson: Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull. Alvarez's first fight this year was a sleep-inducing affair, as he cruised to a unanimous decision win over Scull to become undisputed super middleweight champion for the second time. It was an anticlimactic debut in Saudi Arabia for Canelo after signing a mega-bucks deal with Riyadh Season. Perhaps it was the lack of a vociferous crowd or a threat from Scull, as well as the plan already in place for Canelo to face Terence Crawford on Sept. 13, that led to his underwhelming performance. He threw a meager 152 punches. But it would be wrong to see this as a sign of decline, as Alvarez is now preparing for one of the biggest fights of his life.
Hale: Times Square boxing card. What was supposed to be an iconic spectacle of a boxing event held outdoors in New York City's Times Square ended up being an absolute disappointment. Saudi Arabia's chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, announced that a boxing ring would be erected in Times Square and host a tripleheader featuring Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez in separate fights during Cinco de Mayo weekend. It sounded good on paper but failed to deliver both in and out of the ring. Garcia was upset by Rolando "Rolly" Romero in a miserable fight in which only 490 punches were thrown, ranking it in the bottom five all-time for lowest output for a 12-round fight, according to CompuBox. Haney didn't fare much better in his win over Jose Ramirez, with only 503 punches thrown. And the event was fenced and closed to the public, making for more of an inconvenience for those trying to navigate the busy Manhattan area. The fight card will certainly be remembered, just not for anything good.
Best performance by a prospect
Hale: Moses Itauma TKOs Mike Balogun. I'm not even sure what defines a prospect these days, but I'll go with Itauma's obliteration of Balogun in May. Itauma did what he was expected to do to a gatekeeper and then some. Many thought Itauma, 20, was a couple of years away from title contention, and then he demolished Balogun in two rounds. He's facing former titleholder Dillian Whyte on Aug. 16 in the biggest fight of his career so far.
Parkinson: Ben Whittaker TKOs Liam Cameron. Whittaker could not afford another mishap in his rematch with Cameron -- and the light heavyweight delivered with a clinical Round 2 stoppage win in April. Whittaker, an Olympic silver medalist in 2021, made amends for his previous fight against Cameron in October, when he fell out of the ring and injured himself, which resulted in the fight being declared a technical draw. At 28 years old, Whittaker is still in single figures for professional fights. He has undeniable technical ability, but splits opinions with his showboating.
Best fight card
Parkinson: Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight card on Feb. 22. The Feb. 22 card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contained seven fights that were good enough to be at the top of a bill in their own right. The main event was the undisputed light heavyweight title rematch between Beterbiev and Bivol, which will go down as the biggest fight of the year other than Alvarez vs. Crawford. The card also featured Joseph Parker's spectacular KO of Martin Bakole in a nontitle heavyweight bout; a solid performance by Vergil Ortiz Jr. to unanimously outpoint Ismail Madrimov at junior middleweight; a Round 6 stoppage win for Agit Kabayel, who recovered from a fifth-round knockdown to stop fellow heavyweight contender Zhilei Zhang with a body shot; a comfortable stoppage win for WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson; a split draw that saw Carlos Adames hold on against Hamsah Sheeraz to retain his WBC middleweight title, and a decision win by Callum Smith over Josh Buatsi at light heavyweight.
Hale: Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight card on Feb. 22. The absurdly stacked Feb. 22 card in Riyadh takes top honors with me as well. It wasn't only good on paper, the fights were exciting, for the most part, and everything had significance. None of this would matter if the main event didn't deliver, and Bivol making the proper adjustments to defeat Beterbiev in a high-octane chess match did just that.
Biggest news story
Parkinson: Jake Paul's influence in women's boxing. Garcia's return from a doping ban, the announcement of Alvarez vs. Crawford and Eubank Jr. vs. Benn all created headlines. Vasiliy Lomachenko's retirement was a moment to remember the depth of his skills. The heavyweight division, led by the dominating figure of Oleksandr Usyk and the absent Tyson Fury, will always be newsworthy. But the biggest development was the emergence of Paul's Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) as the most influential player in women's boxing. In May, MVP announced a raft of signings and its show in New York on Saturday features some of the biggest names in women's boxing. Quite simply, MVP seems to be the home of elite women's boxing and it is a move that is welcomed by many fighters, since women are not yet being featured on the lucrative cards in Saudi Arabia, the new home of some of the most significant fights in the men's game.
Hale: Manny Pacquiao's return to boxing. Pacquiao ending his four-year retirement. Pacquiao, 46, is one of boxing's last true household names, and his decision to return to boxing and challenge WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios was a news item that made waves in boxing and beyond. Yes, there were other big news items, but most of us had a pretty good idea that Canelo-Crawford was going to come together. I agree with Nick that Paul's Most Valuable Promotions becoming the unofficial hub for women's boxing may be the most significant story in the long run, but the biggest news item sits with a boxing legend looking to make history again on July 19. If Pacquiao wins, he'd break his own record as the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history and he would be the only boxer to win a fight after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. What could possibly be the last glimpse of a boxing icon will take place in the same arena where he made his stateside debut against Lehlo Ledwaba 24 years ago.
