By Danni Rocket: Let me start off by saying that the question in the title is not a rhetorical one. Although I have only been what I would consider a hardcore boxing fan since about 2004, I have spent most of my free time since catching up on the back catalogue of matches and information available on the internet, in various books, and watching classic matches broadcasted on a multitude of television channels.
This information dates all the way back to the turn of the 20th century, and in some cases, even before then. If any reader can think of a finer year of matchmaking, please let me know in the comments, as I am always looking to improve my knowledge of this great sport, and would never be so bold as to consider myself an expert.
From tonight’s fight between Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, to the World Boxing Super Series Tournaments, and the recent announcement of the fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux, I truly believe that 2017 is one of the greatest years in the history of boxing, or at least in recent history. Never in my lifetime has there been so many unifications, blockbuster events, or just great nights of boxing in the short space of 12 months. In this article, I am going to give a brief rundown of what I consider the biggest fights of the year so far, as well as the fights that have been officially announced, and some that may still get made that could well and truly cement 2017 in the history books as the greatest year ever in boxing.
I must say I will be focusing on men’s boxing in this article, however female boxing has also had an explosive year, with more coverage than ever before, and new superstars emerging from all over the world. This is a subject for another article however.
I will try and write this article as spoiler free as possible, so as not the ruin these fights to anyone wishing to view these bouts.
Tournaments
World Boxing Super Series – Wonderful tournaments organized in both the Super Middleweight and the Cruiserweight Divisions that have already begun with the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Marco Huck fight, and will finish in mid-2018. Although the Super Middleweight tourney does lack some of the divisions key players, the 8 Cruiserweight fighters are made up exclusively of top 10 fighters, and offers the boxing community the rare chance to see a fully unified champion crown at the end of it (except for Denis Lebedev WBA ‘Super’ Belt, which should have been stripped when he lost his fight against Murat Gassiev anyway).
Unifications
Badou Jack vs. James DeGale – We started the year off with a bang here. A genuine classic, fought by the fighters widely considered the number one and two in the division at the time for the WBC, IBF and Ring Magazine belts.
Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia – A WBA/WBC unification fought between the Keith Thurman, a man widely considered the number one in the Welterweight Division, and Danny Garcia, a 2-weight world champion that had cleared up the Light Welterweight Division before moving up and becoming champion again.
Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo – The first full unification since Jermain Taylor defeated Bernard Hopkins for the unified Middleweight crown in 2005. Crawford came in the WBC, WBO and Ring Champion, whilst Indongo came in with the IBF and WBA belts around his waist.
Ryan Burnett vs. Zhanat Zhakiyanov – A fight scheduled for 21st of October with both the IBF and WBA titles on the line. Hopefully the winner will face one of the other champions, and aim to fully unify the Bantamweight Division.
Classic Boxing Cards
SuperFly – An amazing card. 3 fights which featured the top 5 fighters in the division, and a highly ranked contender. Hopefully the winners and losers will be matched together to give us a supreme king of the lower weight classes.
Light Middleweight Card – 3 of the current Light Middleweight World Champions will feature in great fights on October the 14th. WBC champ Jermell Charlo meets Erickson Lubin, IBF title holder Jarrett Hurd faces Austin Trout, and WBA king Erislandy Lara battles Terrel Gausha.
Massive Events
Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor – Start off with the controversial one. Whilst I personally do not understand why this fight was made, let alone available for such ridiculous PPV costs, it undeniably made boxing the number one sport during the build-up, and this sort of publicity can only be view as a good thing.
Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko – 1 Stadium, 2 world class Heavyweights, 90,000 fans, and millions of PPV buys. A marvelous event and a classic fight that showed the world everything that is great about boxing. Joshua’s upcoming fight against Kubrat Pulev sold 70,000 tickets in one day, showing the draw, he has for the UK fight fans.
Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ”GGG” Golovkin– Not just a huge event, this is also the most demanded fight since the Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight (and that fight happened at least 4 years too late). The 2 best Middleweights in the world going toe to toe in what promises to be an incredible fight.
Other Great Fights
Golovkin vs. Danny Jacobs – Fight between the number one and two middleweights at the time, both with massive knockout power.
Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev 2 – A rematch between two of the top 5 Pound for Pound fighters, aiming to set straight the somewhat controversial decision of the extremely close first fight.
Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton 2 – Another rematch, which whilst not as action packed as their first fight, was still a highly entertaining bout between the two best featherweights in the world.
Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. – At the time, certain boxing sites had Brook as their number one Welterweight in the world, and he took this difficult fight against a fighter nobody else seemed to want to meet in the ring.
Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia – A fight that came out of nowhere. Both fighters should be applauded for taking such a tough fight at this point in their careers.
David Haye vs. Tony Bellew – A fight everyone saw as a one-sided joke, but with fantastic promoting from Eddie Hearn, not to mention both fighters, became one of the biggest sporting events in the UK this year. And the fight proved to be both entertaining and surprising in equal measure.
Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Announced yesterday, this fight between two of the greatest amateur boxers of all time, and two of the current finest professional fighters, will take place on December the 9th.
As the reader can see, we have already been treated to so many great fights this year, it is difficult to see how it could be improved upon. However, add to this list the fact that Miguel Cotto and his team want the winner of the Canelo vs. GGG fight in December, Crawford wants to move up to Welterweight and immediately challenge for a title, and there is talk of a Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz fight being finalized, also in December, and we truly have a unique year for not just boxing, but sport in general.
What does the reader think? Have I missed any of your favorite fights? Can you think of any better years in boxing than this? And what fights would you like to see made before the start of 2018? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions, as always.