IT is a brand new year and boxing fans are definitely looking forward to some great matches.<\/p>\r\r
We had some great pugilistic servings last year. The fights that easily stood out were the two matches between heavyweights Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury; the controversial but action-packed showdown between junior welterweights Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia; the huge knockout win of IBF heavyweight champ Daniel Dubois over former champ Anthony Joshua; and the teeth-gnashing brawl between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Serhii Bohachuk for the WBC interim junior middleweight title.<\/p>\r\r
Women's boxing also received a lot of media ink last year, particularly the rematch between undisputed junior welterweight titlist Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Taylor won via a disputed decision in a fight that turned out to be the most watched women's boxing match.<\/p>\r\r
Netflix said that an estimated 74 million people watched the fight worldwide.<\/p>\r\r
Expectations thus run high this year.<\/p>\r\r
The fight fans really want to see is a showdown between unified super middleweight (168) champion Saul \"Canelo\" Alvarez and former three-division champ Terence Crawford.<\/p>\r\r
Crawford (41-0, 31 knockouts) moved up to the junior middleweight (154 pounds) division last year and picked up the WBO interim title with a victory over Israil Madrimov. The move up in weight is for a reason: for Crawford to come tantalizing close to Alvarez's turf.<\/p>\r\r
Alvarez, 62-2, remains one of the hottest tickets in the sport. He may have lost a step or two, but he remains the favorite over Crawford owing to his size and familiarity with the weight class.<\/p>\r\r
Alvarez's handlers are not that receptive because they believe Crawford will just run in the ring. Alvarez reportedly prefers foes who will stand up and fight, hence the reason why he chose Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia last year.<\/p>\r\r
Crawford's status, as of this writing, is also uncertain. He is reportedly nursing an injury but there are also loose whispers that he is leaning on hanging up the gloves. Word is that unless it is Alvarez, Crawford has no plans to return to the ring.<\/p>\r\r
At the junior featherweight (122 pounds) class, undisputed champ Naoya Inoue is looking to lock horns with WBC bantamweight (118 pounds) champ Junto Nakatani.<\/p>\r\r
Unlike the Crawford-Alvarez fight, Inoue-Nakatani is a fight that is already being planned. Nakatani (29-0) is expected to move up in weight and invade the junior featherweight class. Inoue (28-0) is booked to defend his undisputed crown on Jan. 24 and he is expected to breeze past Australian Sam Goodman.<\/p>\r\r
Inoue has been criticized for handpicking his foes but a fight with Nakatani figures to be an exception. An Inoue-Nakatani fight promises to be the biggest all-Japanese fight in history.<\/p>\r\r
Yet another interesting fight for Inoue is opposite WBC junior bantamweight (115 pounds) champion Jessie Rodriguez (21-0).<\/p>\r\r
Rodriguez has emerged as one of the rising stars in the sport, what with impressive victories over Juan Francisco Estrada and Pedro Guevara last year.<\/p>\r\r
Rodriguez, though, has to move two divisions up to get a shot at Inoue.<\/p>\r\r
At junior welterweight, we all want to see a rematch between Americans Haney and Garcia.<\/p>\r\r
The two fought in April with Garcia bamboozling Haney and winning by decision. The result was changed to a No Contest after Garcia tested positive for a banned substance.<\/p>\r\r
Garcia is serving a one-year suspension that will end in April.<\/p>\r\r
However, Garcia is coming off a wrist injury and his immediate return is uncertain. An exhibition fight in Japan late last year was called off be-cause of the injury.<\/p>\r\r
Haney (31-0) is already planning his ring return on March 25. It is rumored that former champion Adrien Broner will be facing him.<\/p>\r\r
At light heavyweight (175 pounds), everybody wants to see a rematch between undisputed champ Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 knockouts) and Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 knockouts). Well, the rematch is taking place on Feb. 22.<\/p>\r\r
Beterbiev defeated Bivol by decision last October to become the first undisputed light heavyweight champ of the four-belt era. Then again, for the first time in his career, Beterbiev went the distance and showed his age (39).<\/p>\r\r
Beterbiev was coming off a knee injury in the first fight. For the rematch, the Russian power puncher has promised to go all-out for a knock-out win.<\/p>\r\r
Lastly, we all want to see a third match between Taylor and Serrano.<\/p>\r\r
The ladies can rumble.<\/p>\r\r
They have squared off twice, in 2022 and last Nov. 24, with Ireland's Taylor carving out controversial decisions. Taylor (24-1) may be up 2-0, but she has yet to convincingly beat Puerto Rican Serrano (47-3). Given the commercial success of the rematch and the fireworks that attended the two fights, a third match is a must.<\/p>","article_custom_fields":"{\"\":[\"\"],\"seo_meta_keywords\":[\"\"],\"seo_meta_description\":[\"\"],\"seo_meta_title\":[\"\"],\"sponsored_flag\":[\"\"],\"offer_flag\":[\"off\"],\"featured_article_flag\":[\"\"],\"drupal_json\":[\"{\\\"type\\\":null,\\\"properties\\\":{\\\"PUBLISHED\\\":0,\\\"PROMOTED\\\":0,\\\"STICKY\\\":0},\\\"fields\\\":[]}\"],\"wp_custom_json\":[\"{\\\"type\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"fields\\\":[]}\"],\"article_tags\":[\"\"],\"show_image\":[\"off\"],\"Disable_Ad\":[\"off\"],\"disable_player\":[\"off\"],\"column\":[\"\"],\"kicker\":[\"\"],\"edel\":[\"\"],\"delu\":[\"\"],\"delt\":[\"Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.\"],\"premium\":[\"off\"],\"Redirect_URL\":[\"\"],\"Registration_required\":[\"off\"],\"background_image\":[\"off\"],\"user_needs\":[\"\"],\"page_number\":\"0\",\"initial_publication\":\"\",\"date_created\":\"2025-01-09 21:33:08\",\"date_modified\":\"2025-01-09 21:35:01\",\"last_modified_user\":\"Mhel Jhon Flores\",\"section_color\":\"#08F304\",\"target_page\":\"0\",\"cxense_metatags\":null}","cms_type":"live","author_id":0,"section_id":3,"seo_meta_keywords":"Fights,we,want,to,see,in,2025","seo_meta_description":"","seo_meta_title":"Fights we want to see in 2025","publish_time":"2025-01-10 00:05:00","related_articles_ids":"","article_tags":"","sub_section_id":0,"visit_count":20,"sponsored_flag":0,"offer_flag":0,"featured_article_flag":0,"media_gallery_flag":0,"video_gallery_flag":0,"highlight_flag":0,"top_story_flag":0,"is_updated":0,"is_old_article":0,"old_article_id":0,"article_byline":"","ts":"2025-01-13 02:19:34","last_edited":"2025-01-09 21:35:01","alt_publish_time":"2025-01-09 21:35:07","image_path":"{\\\"image_path\\\":\\\"manilatimes\\\\\/uploads\\\\\/images\\\\\/2025\\\\\/01\\\\\/09\\\\\/510810.jpg\\\",\\\"cms_type\\\":\\\"live\\\",\\\"small_image\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"is_updated\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"image_cropping\\\":\\\"{\\\\\\\"original_image\\\\\\\":{\\\\\\\"image_original_width\\\\\\\":1200,\\\\\\\"image_original_height\\\\\\\":630,\\\\\\\"icd_image_type\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"original_image\\\\\\\"},\\\\\\\"main_image\\\\\\\":{\\\\\\\"image_main_width\\\\\\\":1200,\\\\\\\"image_main_height\\\\\\\":630,\\\\\\\"icd_image_type\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"main_image\\\\\\\"}}\\\",\\\"is_copied\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"media_type\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"image_caption\\\":\\\"BOXER SHORTS ED C. TOLENTINO\\\",\\\"image_alt_text\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"image_count\\\":1}","author_name":"","section_name":"Sports","sub_section_name":"","slide_show":0,"breaking_news":0,"visit_count_update_date":"2025-01-13 02:19:34","old_cms_article_id":null,"permalink":"2025\/01\/10\/sports\/fights-we-want-to-see-in-2025\/2036195","show_image_in_thumb":0,"api_status":2,"a_custom_data":"{\"exclude_from_gallery\":null,\"lead_image_id\":null}","publication_id":2,"max_publish_time":"2025-01-10 00:05:00","page_number":"0","homepage_article_flag":0,"article_shortlink":null,"cropped_image":0};
