2024 awards: female fight & fighter, round, trainer, manager of year
Plus: The most shocking upset and the biggest story
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In what many consider the greatest women’s fight ever, Katie Taylor edged Amanda Serrano by debatable split decision in a sensational action fight to retain the undisputed lightweight title at sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York in April 2022.
A rematch was inevitable given the tremendous commercial success of the event and public demand for a sequel. A deal was eventually struck but the fight was called off when Serrano, who had gone on to become the undisputed featherweight champion, withdrew due to injury.
After Taylor moved up to junior welterweight and became the undisputed champion in that division by avenging her first loss in a decision over Chantelle Cameron in the 2023 women’s fight of the year, the rematch with Serrano, the 2023 women’s fighter of the year, was rescheduled.
It was set to co-headline the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson heavyweight fight in July but postponed yet again when the entire show was delayed until Nov.15 due to Tyson’s medical issues.
But when Taylor and Serrano, both surefire first-ballot Hall of Famers, finally squared off before 72,300 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and with tens of millions watching on Netflix nearly 2½ years after their instant-classic first fight, guess what happened?
Taylor and Serrano turned in yet another raging battle for the ages in the clear cut 2024 Fight Freaks Unite female fight of the year. Nothing else came even remotely close to the action, the drama, the blood or the competition these women showed to the biggest audience ever for a women’s boxing match. In the United States alone, it had an average audience of 47 million, according to Netflix, which made it the most watching women’s sports event in American history.
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It would not be crazy to view the fight an even better than their first one as they slugged away with abandon in a female version of Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier III. In the end, Taylor won the high-contact battle by disputed unanimous decision — 95-94 on all three scorecards — to retain the undisputed junior welterweight title.
From the outset Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs), 36, a Puerto Rican southpaw and the only woman to win world titles in seven divisions, marched forward and landed punishing shots. It took a coupe of rounds for Taylor to get into the fight but when she did, she gave as good as she took. Serrano, who was moving up three weight divisions, was effective with straight left hands and Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs), 38, of Ireland, countered, moved a bit and landed quick rights.
In the fourth round, an accidental head butt opened a nasty cut over Serrano’s right eye, which she and her team said Taylor inflicted on purpose. Another head butt in the sixth round made the cut much worse as blood poured down the side of her face. There was a gaping wound over her eye, prompting referee Jon Schorle to call timeout for the ringside doctor to examine her.
The fight was allowed to continue and Serrano fought through it like a warrior.
“No matter how many cuts I have I have I’m gonna fight to the very end,” Serrano said afterward.
Though hampered by the cut, she continued to plow forward, but Taylor held her ground and they engaged in several brutal exchanges in the unforgettable seventh round in which they combined to land 89 of 176 punches, according to CompuBox — and keep in mind women’s rounds are only two minutes.
There was no let up for the rest of the fight other than a brief break when Schorle penalized Taylor one point for another butt.
“Another really close fight, two epic fights, two very close decisions, and I’m just proud to be part of such another huge night for women’s boxing,” Taylor, who was also cut and bloodied, said in the ring after the unforgettable battle.
Runners-up: Mikaela Mayer W10 (majority) Sandy Ryan to win the WBO welterweight title; Seniesa Estrada W10 Yokasta Valle to become undisputed strawweight champion.
Make sure to check out the other 2024 award stories so far
Female fighter of the year: Gabriela Fundora
Fundora had mostly been known as the fighting kid sister of junior middleweight contender and now unified titlist Sebastian Fundora, but she carved out her own identity in a big 2024.
In January, Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs), 22, a southpaw from Coachella, California, knocked out then-unbeaten Christina Cruz to retain the IBF flyweight title for the first time and in August made her second defense by shutout decision over Daniela Asenjo.
And then Fundora, nicknamed “Sweet Poison,” made history against Gabriela Alaniz in November. Fundora scored two seventh-round knockdowns and forced Alaniz’s corner to throw in the towel in the 10th round to retain her title and take the WBC, WBO and WBA belts Alaniz in their unification fight to become the undisputed flyweight champion.
The win also made Fundora, who is trained by her father, Freddy Fundora, the first undisputed women’s flyweight champion; the youngest undisputed champion in any weight class in the four-belt era (male or female); and, along with Sebastian, the first brother and sister to hold world titles simultaneously.
Runners-up: Natasha Jonas (outpointed Mikaela Mayer to retain IBF welterweight title and WBC titlist Ivana Habazin to unify); Seniesa Estrada (outpointed Yokasta Valle in a unification fight to become undisputed strawweight champion and retired undefeated); Skye Nicolson (won vacant WBC featherweight title and made two defenses with all three bouts being one-sided decisions).
Round of the year: Ortiz-Bohachuk (8th)
Few expected anything less than an all-action battle when Vergil Ortiz Jr. challenged Serhii Bohachuk for his WBC interim junior middleweight title.
Ortiz and Bohachuk, both with fan-friendly styles, knew each other very well due to the numerous rounds they had sparred together when they shared trained Manny Robles, so when the real fight headlined a Golden Boy card on Aug. 10 on DAZN at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, it was not at all a surprise that they delivered a bona fide fight of the year candidate, which Ortiz eked out by majority decision despite suffering two knockdowns.
Of the 12 action-packed rounds, it was the frenetic eighth round that stood tall above the others and is the 2024 Fight Freaks Unite round of the year.
When Bohachuk connected with a left hook that forced Ortiz to pitch forward and touch both of his gloves to the canvas with two minutes left, referee Harvey Dock ruled the second knockdown of the fight, which an angry Ortiz protested.
When the fight resumed, Ortiz was so fired up that he went wild with his punches as he rushed Bohachuk in a relentless effort to make up for the knockdown. He picked up the pace and went hunting for a knockout. He landed a clean right hand and continued to bomb away with both hands. But Bohachuk showed an impressive chin to stand up to the blows and delivered punches in return in as they fought toe to toe in a superb action-packed three minutes that left the crowd going wild.
Runners-up: Derek Chisora-Joe Joyce (9th); Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez-Juan Francisco Estrada (6th); Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury I (9th); Abdullah Mason-Yohan Vasquez (1st); Fernando Martinez-Kazuto Ioka (7th).
Trainer of the year: Robert Garcia
Year in and year out Garcia, an obvious future Hall of Famer, is typically a strong candidate for trainer of the year honors, and he has won it in the past. But 2024 was one of his strongest years ever in the corner.
His deep stable went 70-7 in 2024 and his guys posted some significant wins. His No.1 fighter, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, was a top candidate for fighter of the year as he returned to the junior bantamweight division and knocked out Juan Francisco Estrada to win the lineal title and reclaim the WBC belt, as well as make a successful defense by KO against interim titlist Pedro Guevara.
Garcia also led new charge Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela to an upset split decision over Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz to win the WBA junior welterweight title and unbeaten junior middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. to three more wins, including a majority decision over Serhii Bohachuk to win the WBC interim title in a strong fight of the year contender.
Guiding Rodriguez, Valenzuela and Ortiz to that kind of success would be a big year for any trainer. But Garcia also led unbeaten junior welterweight Lindolfo Delgado to three more wins and junior welterweight contender Oscar Duarte to two more wins — a KO of Joseph Diaz Jr. and decision over Batyr Akhmedov in a fantastic battle — not to mention overseeing the emergence of 22-year-old featherweight prospect Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez, who reeled off five wins and was signed by Top Rank.
Runners-up: Yuri Tkachenko (heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk); Rudy Hernandez (WBC bantamweight titlist Junto Nakatani and WBO flyweight titlist Anthony Olascuaga); Freddy Fundora (unified junior middleweight titlist Sebastian Fundora and undisputed women’s flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora).
Manager of the year: Keith Connolly
While winning the fighter or trainer of the year award is about winning in the ring at the highest level that is not the most critical metric when it comes to measuring the success of a manager, whose No.1 responsibility is to make sure the fighter gets the best possible deal for the bouts they agree on with the promoter.
Keith Connolly did that expertly in 2024, getting his fighters paid extremely well (as usual), and also signing a significant fighter to his roster to make him the no-doubt-about-it pick for manager of the year for the second year in a row.
The biggest deal went to super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga, who Connolly signed to Matchroom Boxing in 2023 after negotiating his release from Top Rank. It was in an effort to position Berlanga for a fight with superstar champion Canelo Alvarez, who was with Matchroom at the time. And even though Alvarez left Matchroom, Connolly still landed Berlanga the mega fight and title shot, handling the negotiations with Alvarez’s team. The result was a massive eight-figure deal for Berlanga.
Connolly had also signed heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic in 2023 and did an eight-figure multi-fight deal with Riyadh Season, getting him a tune-up fight for millions at the end of the year and then a huge money fight with Daniel Dubois for the IBF interim title in June.
Connolly also guided junior welterweight Richardson Hitchins to the IBF title, helping him get an eliminator and then forcing the mandatory shot against Liam Paro when it was not yet due.
When former middleweight titlist Daniel Jacobs wanted to end a 2½-year layoff, Connolly negotiated his fight with Shane Mosley Jr. on a Fanmio pay-per-view card. Although Jacobs lost a wide decision and retired, he went out with one more mid-six-figure payday Connolly got for him.
Connolly also made a very significant addition to his roster, signing controversial British welterweight star Conor Benn. Connolly, who is his co-manager, is the point person negotiating his next fights with Matchroom Boxing, which means a likely eight-figure deal to face Chris Eubank Jr. or a seven-figure deal to challenge WBC welterweight titlist Mario Barrios.
Runner-up: Egis Klimas (clients include lineal/unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, unified middleweight titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly, IBF junior middleweight titlist Bakhram Murtazaliev and IBF lightweight titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko).
Upset of the year: Surace KO6 Munguia
Super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia had given a good account of himself in a decision loss challenging unified champion and superstar Canelo Alvarez in May and returned in September in his first fight with Top Rank to knock out unbeaten Erik Bazinyan. Munguia and his team decided to do a third fight in 2024 before moving on to bigger things.
So, Munguia returned to Tijuana, Mexico, for a Dec. 14 homecoming bout at a stadium, where he was matched with an utterly obscure 50-to-1 underdog, Frenchman Bruno Surace, who was undefeated against horrible opposition and came into the fight with only four knockouts in 27 fights. This was designed to be a blowout. A walkover. A destruction. The question wasn’t if Munguia would win but in what round would he drill the supposed French pastry.
All looked good too for Munguia, who was dominating the fight and had dropped Surace in the second round. But then it turned into an absolute disaster. Munguia, with non-existent defense, left himself wide open and Surace connected with the flushest right hand he could have landed on Munguia’s chin. His neck twisted and spit went flying from his mouth before Munguia crashed to the mat flat on his back. He rolled over to all fours and tried to get up but referee Juan Jose Ramirez counted him out at 2 minutes, 36 seconds in the biggest shocker of the year.
Runners-up: Anthony Cacace TKO8 Joe Cordina; Sebastian Fundora W12 Tim Tszyu; Daniel Dubois KO5 Anthony Joshua; Ricardo Fernandez KO5 Alan Garcia; Lucas Bahdi KO6 Ashton Sylve; Melvin Jerusalem W12 Yudai Shigeoka.
Story of the year: Saudi Arabia dominates
It was in October 2023 when Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, threw his muscle — and his country’s hundreds of millions of dollars — behind boxing with the first Riyadh Season card, which was headlined by then-heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s boxing match against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Then there was a second card that December.
That was just a glimpse of what was to come in a massive 2024, when Riyadh became the center of boxing with one big fight and one stacked card after another as it left traditional locations Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and London in the dust.
In 2024, Alalshikh spearheaded eight more Riyadh Season cards, six in Riyadh and one apiece in Los Angeles and London. He brought a slew of promoters together to be involved in the events, including longtime rivals Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, as well as Top Rank, Golden Boy, Goldstar, K2 and others.
And he put on the deepest cards in decades with the most significant fights in the sport that had gone unmade until his arrival, including Fury against Oleksandr Usyk in the first undisputed heavyweight championship fight in 25 years (and then the rematch) and Artur Beterbiev versus Dmitri Bivol for the undisputed light heavyweight title, also the first in the division in 25 years (with a rematch scheduled for Feb. 22).
Alalshikh put on two huge events for Anthony Joshua (against Ngannou and the upset loss to Daniel Dubois); the super fun, entertaining and significant “5 vs.5” card pitting top fighters from Warren’s roster against top fighters from Hearn’s; took the show to L.A. to get Terence Crawford back in action on a mega card that also involved several Premier Boxing Champions fighters; and even put on the outstanding non-pay-per-view “Latino Night” card that featured cruiserweight Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and strawweight Oscar Collazo winning unification fights.
And on top of all those loaded shows, Alalshikh, a die-hard boxing fan, personally purchased the fabled Ring magazine from Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya for $10 million, returned it to a print publication and was making big plans for the future of the sport.
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Photos: Taylor-Serrano II: Getty Images for Netflix; Fundora and Ortiz-Bohachuk: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy; Garcia/Rodriguez and Connolly/Berlanga: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing; Surace-Munguia: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Alalshikh: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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Great reading dan looking forward to your propect of the year
Great to see Robert Garcia getting recognition. Year in year out does a great job but is constantly overlooked. As you stated Dan, a definite Hall of Fame member in the near future.