Boxing's big three continued to shine in 2025 with Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue all remaining undefeated and adding impressive victories to their records.
Usyk extended his dominance at heavyweight with a solitary victory – over Daniel Dubois – which followed his December 2024 rematch triumph over Tyson Fury.
Inoue boxed four times, defending his super bantamweight titles against Kim Ye-joon, Ramon Cardenas and Murodjon Akhmadaliev before marking his Riyadh debut on Saturday night with near shut-out decision over David Picasso.
Crawford provided the year's outstanding victory when he moved up two divisions and outclassed Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in September before abruptly hanging up the gloves. His shock retirement leaves a hole in American boxing, although the brilliance of Jesse Rodriguez, Shakur Stevenson and David Benevidez means there is no shortage of elite talent.
Outside of the ring, Dana White's long rumoured boxing enterprise – Zuffa Boxing – was launched. The next 12 months should reveal whether they will become a major player or just the latest entity chewed up and spat out by this most dysfunctional of industries.
Netflix made a major push into the boxing market with tens of millions of subscribers enjoying some of the sport's biggest events.
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