The past year has provided many unforgettable moments in boxing – historic victories, fresh undisputed champions, stunning upsets, knockouts and breakthrough performances that changed the sport.

Terence Crawford jumped two weight classes when he defeated Canelo Alvarez and made history by becoming the undisputed champion in the third division, something that had never been done in the four-belt era (since 2007).

Gabriela Fundora became the youngest undisputed champion in boxing history in 2024, and she repeated that feat a year ago with two knockout victories that put her in the top five of the ESPN women’s pound-for-pound rankings.

And the story of 2025 wasn’t narrow to the champions alone. Coaches, prospects and memorable fights all played their part, leaving fans wanting more.

Which moments, fighters and knockouts will be remembered as the best in 2025? Let’s celebrate the most critical events of the past year.

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Men’s Player of the Year: Terence Crawford

Other fighters may have been more vigorous in 2025, but only Crawford moved up two weight classes to soundly defeat superstar Canelo Alvarez and become the undisputed three-division world champion. That alone is worth more than anything any other boxer has achieved. Among them, Naoya Inoue defended his undisputed junior featherweight title four times, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez added to his title collection by eliminating two world champions, and Oleksandr Usyk maintained his heavyweight dominance.

There were questions about how Crawford, the former undisputed junior welterweight and welterweight champion, would acclimate himself to the super middleweight division where Alvarez dominated for five years. Would he be able to absorb Alvarez’s power and potentially harm him? Crawford answered these questions definitively with a brilliant boxing masterclass, leaving Canelo visibly frustrated. Crawford, who spent most of his career competing at 135 to 147 pounds, finally got his due and rose to superstardom with a legacy-defining performance.

The fighter from Omaha, Nebraska, who began his professional career without much fanfare, proved that he deserved to be called the greatest boxer of his era. To cap off a brilliant career, Crawford decided to retire after the biggest victory of his career.

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Women’s Player of the Year: Gabriela Fundora

Fundora firmly established herself as the future of women’s boxing with an impressive 2025 campaign, dominating the field with knockout victories over Alexas Kubicki and Marilyn Badillo to maintain her status as the undisputed flyweight champion. Standing at 5’7″ and with a reach of 69″, Fundora demonstrated her finishing skills, adding to an already intimidating toolkit that has the 23-year-old potentially reaching the top of the women’s food chain in 2026.

Fundora is a mixture of extraordinary physical features and unique skills. She is currently the only female boxer under 30 on ESPN’s P4P list. If she succeeds in her intention to change weight and becomes a two-division champion in 2026, there is a good chance she will win this award in the following years.

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Men’s Fight of the Year: Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn 1

It wasn’t just a fight; it was every moment leading up to the grudge match that made Eubank and Benn’s first meeting the best men’s fight of the year. The deeply personal feud between their middleweight champion fathers three decades ago continued in 2025 when Eubank and Benn engaged in an epic exchange that rocked London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

From the moment Eubank arrived at the arena with his father, Chris Eubank senior, through his epic pre-fight exits, to the electrifying clash in the ring, this evening will go down in the history of British boxing as one of the most memorable. But none of the atmosphere would matter if the fight itself wasn’t perfect.

The swings in the pendulum’s momentum were dramatic. Benn started quickly, but Eubank closed the gap and eventually had a mighty second half, winning a unanimous decision after a hard-fought fight. It was a occasional occasion where the fight lived up to – and probably exceeded – the hype.

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Women’s Fight of the Year: Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3

While not as stimulating as their previous two encounters, Taylor and Serrano’s third meeting was an intriguing chess match with both fighters choosing to be more alert than their previous two fights. The result of the strategic shift favored Taylor, who managed to methodically outwork the seemingly defeated Serrano throughout the 10-round fight to earn a majority decision. Calculating, Taylor used a pointed hook to keep Serrano at bay, occasionally causing an avalanche when her opponent got too close. It was the equivalent of watching two football teams exchange brief passes and tackles rather than trying the riskier deep throws and trick shots. The previous two fights had set an unfairly high bar for their third meeting, but this was an exceptionally technical fight between two of the best fighters in the world right now.

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Prospect of the year: Adam Azim

From a junior perspective, Azim has become a legitimate contender for the junior welterweight title in 2025 thanks to impressive victories over Sergey Lipinets and Kurt Scoby. Azim, 23, rode through Lipinets in February, becoming only the second rider to finish the former world champion. After this performance, he led to a penalty stoppage of Scoby in the 12th round, ending with a brutal attack on the body. The Briton was considered a future world champion and his evolution is progressing faster than expected.

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KO of the year: Brian Norman Jr. vs. Jin Sasaki

Norman burst into the consciousness of boxing fans after Sasaki’s brutal fifth-round knockout in June. While Fabio Wardley’s knockout of Justis Huni from behind and Jai Opetaia’s disturbing takedown of Huseyin Cinkar were worthy contenders for best of the year, Norman’s sweeping left hook formally declared him the hardest punch in the welterweight division.

Sasaki had already touched the canvas twice in the first round, but opted to maintain an offensive mindset as he looked to find a way back into the fight. Norman saw his opportunity when Sasaki went to the body with a left jab and stayed a little too close for comfort. Norman got back to his feet and fired a left hook that hit Sasaki as he tried to get out of range. The incredible force of the blow knocked Sasaki down, his head violently bouncing off the canvas. There was no need to count because the referee quickly ended the fight. The owner of Sasaki’s home gym told Japanese media a few days later that Sasaki had been struggling with memory loss and had no memory of the six weeks before the fight.

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Upset of the Year: Rolando “Rolly” Romero vs. Ryan Garcia

The plan was plain: Devin Haney and Garcia would be featured in separate prep matches on the first fight card, which took place on May 2 in Fresh York’s Times Square, to set up their long-awaited rematch.

Haney took care of business in a relatively unexciting affair with Jose Ramirez, then sat down at ringside to see how his rival would fare against the hard-hitting but far from defensive “Rolly” Romero.

Garcia was a significant betting favorite (-900) and was expected to knock out Romero spectacularly with his powerful left hook. Instead, a nightmare scenario for Garcia began to take shape when Romero put him on the canvas with a left hook in the second round. And what followed was nothing brief of disappointing. Romero maintained the advantage on the scorecards and the fight was largely devoid of action, with a total of 123 punches thrown out of a total of 490 thrown. Romero’s unanimous decision victory secured the third-lowest punching power in a 12-round fight in CompuBox history, nullifying the expected Haney-Garcia rematch.

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Coach of the Year: Robert Garcia

Coaches like Brian “BoMac” McIntyre (Terence Crawford and Chris Eubank Jr.) and Ben Davison (Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma) had mighty years, leading their players to legacy-defining victories. However, this award goes to Garcia for his work with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Raymond Muratalla.

Garcia put Muratalla on the path to becoming the interim lightweight world champion when he defeated Zaur Abdullaev in May. He helped Ortiz knock on the door of pound-for-pound status by methodically beating Israil Madrimov in February and brutally decimating Erickson Lubin in November. But working with Rodriguez, ESPN’s No. 5 dynamo, really set him apart on the field. Rodriguez scored two thrilling 10th-round knockouts of world champion Phumelele Cafu in July and Fernando Martinez in November, securing his place as one of the best fighters in the world and his coach’s place on the top of ESPN’s top fighters of the year.