This was a spectacular year for fight fans almost from beginning to end, with several matches that had been anticipated for years finally taking place.
Financially, Gervonta Davis facing off against fellow undefeated pugilist Ryan Garcia was the most lucrative, becoming the sixth highest-grossing boxing contest of all time. Davis, 28 at the time of their April fight in Las Vegas, entered the event with a 28-0 record and 26 knockouts. Garcia, then 24, came in at 23-0 with 19 knockouts.
Ultimately, Davis, the more experienced of the two, dominated Garcia, dropping him in the second round and earning the knockout in the seventh.
In a fight that fans eagerly craved, unified and undefeated welterweight champion Errol Spence, Jr., who entered the fight 28-0 with 22 knockouts, took on undefeated WBO welterweight champion and former undisputed light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who was 39-0 with 30 knockouts. Each was considered among the best pound-for-pound boxers in the sport.
Shockingly, Crawford, 35 when the opening bell rang, thoroughly dominated the 33-year-old Spence. He put on a clinic from the second round, when he dropped Spence, to the ninth, when he was awarded a TKO victory. There was a rematch clause for both fighters to be completed before the end of 2023, but Spence was badly hurt in the first fight and a date has yet to be determined for another meeting between them.
Crawford, in the view of many fans and journalists, should be named Fighter of the Year by boxing associations and media platforms after becoming the undisputed champion in a second division (the other was light welterweight). He is the first male boxer to do so in the four-belt era.
Clarissa Shields also held the distinction of being a two-division undisputed champion. She is currently the light middleweight champ and previously was the middleweight title holder.
A case can be made for Devin Haney to be Fighter of the Year as well. In a pairing promoted to be a chess match, Haney battled 35-year-old Vasiliy Lomachenko for 12 rounds in May in a highly contested fight. Ultimately, Haney handed Lomachenko the third loss of his career with a controversial 115-113, 116-112, 115-113 unanimous victory to retain his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring lightweight titles.
A large sector of the boxing community scored the fight a draw or a win for Lomachenko.
Haney, who turned 25 in November, followed up that victory by moving up to the super lightweight division.
