By Norm Frauenheim
A year ends and another begins, leaving memories, controversies, brilliance, buffoonery, outrage, the usual suspects and lessons never heeded.
Ignore the lessons, and a battered business moves on from 2025 into 2026 full of the usual good, sad, bad and ugly.
First, the good: Fighter of the Year. It starts with the obvious, Terence Crawford. He’s Fighter of the Year with a singular performance, one of the best in several years.
This corner has said before and will say it again: Crawford’s decision over Canelo Alvarez in mid-September reminded us why boxing was once called The Sweet Science. It was brilliant for its fundamental adherence to time-honored skills, including footwork and smarts.
Lesson: It can be done again. Here are two fighters who have a chance at doing it in forthcoming years, both contenders now.
First runner-up: Naoya Inoue, who in 2025 stayed busy – old-school style – with four fights including this corner’s Fight of the Year, a Las Vegas stoppage of Ramon Cardenas in May. In an early round, then unknown Cardenas floored Inoue, who is at his dynamic best when he’s in trouble. The dramatic comeback from the perilous edge of defeat also saved boxing on a weekend that included the wreckage from an abysmal event in New York’s Times Square.
Second runner-up: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. The three-division champ is boxing’s Quiet Man. He lets his performances speak for him. In 2026, they spoke volumes with two lethal stoppages, including this corner’s Knockout-of-the-Year of super-fly Fernando Martinez for a unified title.
It’s no coincidence that he and Inoue are linked in this Fighter-of-the-Year ballot. Bam-Inoue in late 2026 is the fight this corner wants to see more than any other.
Now, the sad: A solemn 10-count for George Foreman, Ricky Hatton and Nino Benvenuti. Boxing lost all three in 2025. Foreman, ex-heavyweight champ from two eras, was a compelling story about personal transformation from angry to wise. A scary thug in the early 70s, he became as friendly as a cheeseburger in the 90s. Hatton was fearless and transparent, loved deeply by UK fans who serenaded him. Benvenuti, ex-undisputed middleweight champ with a matinee-idol’s look, is forever remembered by his fellow Italians.
Another 10-count for Michael Katz and Thomas Gerbasi, Sweet Scientists badly missed these days in the media seats. During times full of unsourced reports and feigned outrage in social media, both remind this corner that boxing can still be a writers’ sport.
On to the bad. It wouldn’t be boxing without it.
Worst Scorecard of the Year: Nawal Almohaimeed’s 118-110 in favor of Junto Nakatani in a unanimous decision over Sebastian Hernandez Nov. 22 in Riyadh. The other cards were 115-113, both for Nakatani and both debatable. The fight was supposed to set the stage for Inoue-versus-Nakatani in an all-time Japanese fight in May.
Per sources close to the planned bout, Japanese promoter Akihiko Honda ended any chance of a speculated Bam-Nakatani fight months ago. He didn’t want to jeopardize plans for Inoue-Nakatani.
Yet, Hernandez almost did what Honda feared Bam would. Questions linger about the decision and what it says about Nakatani’s chances versus Inoue.
The Enemy Within: Gervonta Davis calls himself Tank. That’s what’s he’s doing to his career. He’s tanking it with personal problems that never seem to end.
Davis has pound-for-pound skills and pound-for-pound troubles. The latest — a lawsuit alleging violent behavior, battery, and kidnapping – forced a cancellation of a date with Jake Paul, who wound up with a fractured jaw when he decided to fight Anthony Joshua. In news conferences, Tank, 31, said he planned to retire after Paul. “Boxing is dead,’’ he said.
Exhibitions Ad Nauseam: Jake Paul, more promoter than fighter, suffered a painful loss – if not lesson – in facing Joshua. When Joshua’s brutal right snapped Paul’s jaw in two places, I immediately thought of an old line: You can’t play boxing. But authorities – the Florida Athletic Commission — allowed him to, despite the risk posed by Joshua’s enormous advantages in size and experience.
It reminded me of Paul’s date in November 2024 against Mike Tyson, aging yet in the ring despite a bleeding ulcer months before opening bell. Texas authorities shouldn’t have licensed Tyson, who was an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately, one didn’t. Against Joshua, the risk was to Paul, who’s victory over an ailing Tyson may have told him he could survive Joshua.
He couldn’t in what proved to be a sobering moment for somebody who is good for boxing only on the promotional side of the ropes.
Lesson: Do we really need to see Floyd Mayweather-versus-Tyson later this year? Resolve to just say no.
