BoxRec

How did boxing do in 2021 ?
For me, the short version is we were dominated by covid.
Fights got cancelled, put off or went ahead.
Where are we ?
Boxing managed to navigate it's way through the sports schedule.
I think we are one of the most resilient sports in the world today without a question of a doubt.
We do have a bit of leeway and could be considered a guinea pig but have a tremendous amount of pull when it comes down to human perseverance.
They look to boxing to see how far we can go in the sporting world.
Fight wise we didn't get everything we wanted and why would we considering the circumstances.
I think boxing held it's own and did all right.

Overall, a decent year. It had some drawbacks, but there was quite an amount of good fights. Surely the best possible didn't happen, yet there were memorable moments.

the olympics were a fun interlude

after all the bullsheet making the fight, kambo-teo turned out to be an excellent fight

finally done with fury and wilder's love affair, in style

usyk delivering on the hw hype a lot had given him for years (and ppl had called him overrated for) -- we enter 2022 with the hw division having excitement

canelo with an ambitious run

donaire exciting resurgence

my annoyances: still no hw undisputed fight due to mandatory rematches, lack of craw-spence still, no good fight for tank, no lhw unification, still many of the 168-175 go soft waiting for canelo, no big ggg or andrade or charlo fight at mw. inoue stagnating

On the positive side:
Yes I enjoyed the Olympics.
There was very good judging for the most part - something that has been a huge turn off for me in the past.
Two big HW fights, both exciting for different reasons.
Two 4 belt unification fights.
The final retirement of Manny.
The Kambosos upset.

On the negative side:
Too many fighters in a holding pattern waiting for their chance at a big payday.
Too many undeserving PPVs
Too many fight cards being televised with predictable knockover type matchups
Too many old fighters risking their health for another payday

I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of fights although it was a quiet year.

Did decently. Dont think early 2022 is going to be better. huge chunk out of peoples primes struggling to get 1 meaningfull fight a year. hopefully everyone gets back in the swing north hemi sumer...

covid is going to be terrible for depth down the line because i have to assume half of the journymen/small hall/low levle guys hve just jumped on the tools and got out of the gym, While those guys themselves dont matter directly to televised boxing, indirectly they are the guys the prospects need to beat, (or even the guys that prospects opponents have to beat).

The late rally made it a respectable year of boxing. The last couple of months have been excellent.

Good
Fury- Wilder
Usyk - AJ
Kamboso - Lopez
Olympics were decent

Bad
Too many cancelled fights
Too few good fights
Jake Paul - Tommy Fury didn't happen