Who is Fighter of the Year for 2023?

[Sweet Dick Willie]

Inoue for me is the best boxer alive.

Hear hear

[The Gratest]

Inoue.
Skills, power and willingness to fight.

Footnote mention to Joshua who fought often enough to cause someone to change their username.

[Evander]

Terence Crawford.
Who had a 50/50 like he did and came through in impressive fashion.

[Sweet Dick Willie]

Terence Crawford.
Who had a 50/50 like he did and came through in impressive fashion.

Inoue? Against Fulton

[WestEndRiot]

I think the talk of Crawford fighting once a year is irrelevant.

Inoue also only had one real fight. The Tapales fight was a gimme. It was only ever a question of how long it would take him, and it only happened because we continue to give undue credit to the toxic sanctioning bodies.

[margaret thatcher]

nah, keeping active is part of being a fighter. beating up a top ranked guy is always much more impressive than sitting on your arse and doing nothing the rest of the year. you gotta work your arse into shape then perform rather than just assuming a hypothetical win. plus weve seen plenty of upsets happen and things go wrong. even without belts, beating mj made tapales highly ranked at 122. the fulton win was very very good of course too. funnily enough id say tapals gave inoue a better challenge

it's not an award for best single performance. i wanna see a talent like tcraw more active (1 fight a year for 4 years running) and wont mind at all if it's held against him for an award taking a whole year into account.

[Finkel]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

[Evander]

Terence Crawford.
Who had a 50/50 like he did and came through in impressive fashion.

Inoue? Against Fulton

That matches Crawford v Spence ?

[Evander]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

He beat Fulton.

[margaret thatcher]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

He beat Fulton.

ya fulton is pretty dang good, so good you picked him to beat inoue

[Evander]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

He beat Fulton.

ya fulton is pretty dang good, so good you picked him to beat inoue

He was looking promising coming in

[margaret thatcher]

ya, i mean he's a very good boxer, no shame in picking him

[Sendo Takeshi]

I'd argue dominating a very good boxer like Fulton, after you went up for 4 divisions is at least as impressive as dominating a great boxer like Spence, after going up 2 divisions.

Both of them did great things this year, but after beating one more unified champ I don't see a reason to not have Inoue Number 1.

[Finkel]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

He beat Fulton.

Sorry, I'm not following you.

[sheedyblue]

Inoue

[IRL25]

On the world stage I would say Naoya Inoue for becoming undisputed at Super Bantamweight in just two fights after cleaning up at Bamtamweight within a year (if you are looking at it from the Paul Butler fight).

Domestically I would say Chris Billiam Smith for beating Lawrence Okolie at the Vitality Stadium and then stopping Matesuz Masternak in his first defence. Plus honourable mentions for Nick Ball for defeating Isaac Dogboe on the Magnificent 7 bill in a world title eliminator and Nathan Heaney for beating Denzel Bentley for the British Middleweight title.

[Thomastearns]

Inoue obviously but Benavidez is on the rise.

Benavidez v Canelo is a super fight must for 2024, any later and the pendulum will have swung too far towards the younger man.

Joshua, Zhang and Parker improved their lot but Wilder and Fury axis somewhat diminished. Just how far it's diminished will be revealed by the upcoming Usyk v Fury fight.

The much anticipated Joshua v Wilder fight is still a great attraction but no longer a red hot one.

Usyk himself now stands on the verge of legendary status. A convincing win against Fury will effectively silence any remaining doubts, legitimate ones that is.

Crawford grabbed most of the headlines by defeating Spence but still remains woefully innactive

Meanwhile the always exciting Beterbiev is shockingly still under most people's radar. Hopefully a future fight against the technically Bivol will put that right.

If you're looking for the best technician in the game, Dmitry Bivol is your man.

I think it's been a fairly quiet year for UK fighters, apart from the ever busy Joshua, and those 2 strange Eubank v Smith encounters.

Nothing from Dillian Whyte, Brook and Khan remained retired, and Billy Joe Saunders might as well be.

Women's boxing and fights involving YouTubers now seem established in the west, but the real beating heart of boxing seems to have moved overseas, particularly to Saudi Arabia.

That recent Day of Reckoning event in Riyadh was the best single card of boxing we've seen in decades, if not all time.

How quick things change.

[squiggy]

Inuoe by a wide margin. Probably Crawford next, maybe Haney. Then Navarrete, who won three title fights and his win over Valdez was particularly impressive. Bam Rodriguez, winning a flyweight belt and then beating up Edwards to unify also would be up there.
Why are people saying Parker? Are you talking about Joseph Parker, who outpointed a 38-year-old Wilder, who 75% of the people on here complained was a fraud as an alphabet belt-holder almost four years ago?
Short memories. Parker wouldn't be in my top 20

Two and a half. And the draw in the third one was fairly fortunate for him.

[gregregegg]

If you asked me Jan 1st 2023 I would have guessed inoue would win it quite confidently . And I think I’m right there… although I would have guessed Fulton and MJ (would have been a bit better).

Guessing who will win 2024 is much harder, and is pretty tough one.

Doubt inoue can get it staying at 122 (which he sounds like he wants to do.

If fury or usyk go 2-0 then they will be very hard to beat.

Bivol could got Bert and canelo (very hard to beat)

Bert could go cal smith and Bivol (and even a third)

Cal smith could go Bert and Bivol (borderline unbeatable fighter of the year option if he does (could even add a 3rd))

If any 135s/140s get 2 top class wins there in with a sniff.

If craw knocked Spence and beat boots would be right up there…

Canelo could beat benevidez and Bivol would be right up there…

It’s all there to be won this year… plenty more other winning combos.

[margaret thatcher]

there are still some solid guys at 122, but inoue would need at least 3 wins at that weight to get serious hype for it id think. nery, mj, + another dude. even if that didnt win it, it would almost surely get him in the honourable mention discussion based on past years contenders

apparently nery in may seems most likely his next fight atm. that is a good start opposition wise, but to realistically do 3 in a year as a top fighter you'd want him to start earlier in the year

now, if he beats nery and then moves up and beats a 126 champ, that alone could make him a serious contender again because title in another weight class would impress more people and gives a better narrative than just beating challengers

[Evander]

Inoue. He fought two champions back-to-back in a new weight class and became undisputed doing so.

Hat's off to Crawford for being the first to become two weight undisputed in the four-belt era. But Inoue eclipsed him this year and took the #1 P4P spot.

He beat Fulton.

Sorry, I'm not following you.

Who was the most threating opponent for Inoue in 2023 ?
Fulton

[omalley]

now, if he [Inoue] beats nery and then moves up and beats a 126 champ, that alone could make him a serious contender again because title in another weight class would impress more people and gives a better narrative than just beating challengers

Inoue will not move up from 122 in 2024.

[Finkel]

He beat Fulton.

Sorry, I'm not following you.

Who was the most threating opponent for Inoue in 2023 ?
Fulton

Well I would say both had their strengths and weaknesses. Tapales put in a better performance against Inoue than Fulton for me.

Plus if I am honest, I had less interest in the Crawford - Spence fight, as Spence hasn't sounded right since he flipped the car and got ejected at high speed. Watching the footage, it was a miracle he survived. You don't just walk away from an accident like that with no damage done, not if you are an elite athlete anyway. So that along with being extremely tight at the weight and the result wasn't a surprise to me at all.

It's not necessarily Crawford's fault, but the fight should have happened years ago.

So overall, I'd say Inoue achieved more this year. Personally, I don't see it as being all that close either.

[gregregegg]

Is Spence a better win than Fulton?
Much better name.
Has been at a much higher levle.

But years of inactivity, big weight cuts, big weekends and a big car cash later… hard to say.

His Ugas win has aged badly, and befor that was pretty workman like until you go back 5 years… Spence was a very good win, the fashion craw did it in was very very good, but hard to be certain Spence is actually a better fighter than Fulton at this point in time…

I credit it as one of the best single wins of the year, but not enough to take over inoues achievements.

[Evander]

Sorry, I'm not following you.

Who was the most threating opponent for Inoue in 2023 ?
Fulton

Well I would say both had their strengths and weaknesses. Tapales put in a better performance against Inoue than Fulton for me.

Plus if I am honest, I had less interest in the Crawford - Spence fight, as Spence hasn't sounded right since he flipped the car and got ejected at high speed. Watching the footage, it was a miracle he survived. You don't just walk away from an accident like that with no damage done, not if you are an elite athlete anyway. So that along with being extremely tight at the weight and the result wasn't a surprise to me at all.

It's not necessarily Crawford's fault, but the fight should have happened years ago.

So overall, I'd say Inoue achieved more this year. Personally, I don't see it as being all that close either.

Activity hurts the Crawford argument, that's where you corner that point of view.
It's a solid fact you can't get out of it.
Yeah I see why you pick Inoue, he's a good boxer but I'm fussy and need to see more
It's a close one but I see why people would pick Inoue.