American former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford earned the annual ESPY award for “Best Boxer” during the award ceremony held Thursday night, July 11th, in Los Angeles. The selection of Crawford, whose July 29th win over Errol Spence Jr. last year resulted in him becoming undisputed, raises concerns about the validity of the award given that fighters like Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk fought twice over the past 12 months, compared to Crawford, who only beat Spence en route to a significant career victory.
On July 29th, Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) reached the pinnacle of boxing with a one-sided beatdown over Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KO’s), which saw Crawford become undisputed for the second time in his career. Currently regarded as a top 3 pound-for-pound (P4P) fighter on various established rankings, Crawford does deserve acknowledgment as one of the best fighters in the world. However, the performances of fellow P4P fighters Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KO’s) and Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KO’s) may have overshadowed Crawford’s undisputed welterweight (147 lbs) achievement.
The ESPY’s, an acronym for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards,” first introduced the “Best Boxer” award in 1993, with American heavyweight Riddick Bowe becoming the inaugural winner. After 2006, the award was integrated into the “Best Fighter” award―which included both boxers and martial arts fighters―until it was re-established in 2019 as an award for boxers again.
Included on the list of nominees to win the award this year were Inoue and Usyk, as well as Seniesa Estrada (26-0, 9 KO’s), who became the undisputed minimumweight (105 lbs) champion earlier this year after defeating Yokasta Valle (30-3, 29 KO’s) by unanimous decision (UD).
Both Inoue and Usyk notably fought at least twice over a 12-month period compared to Crawford, whose dominant win over Spence remains his only fight in 2023. Crawford is set to be active this year as well and will face interim WBA super welterweight (154 lbs) Uzbek champion Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KO’s), debuting at 154 lbs.
Naoya Inoue became undisputed for the second time in his career after stopping Filipino super bantamweight (122 lbs) unified [WBA and IBF] champion Marlon Tapales (38-4, 20 KO’s). Prior to that, Inoue defeated American unified [WBC & WBO] champion Stephen Fulton (21-1, 8 KO’s)―in the same week as Crawford defeated Spence Jr.―in his 122 lbs debut to become a unified champion. Approximately two months ago, Inoue successfully defended all his 122 lbs titles against Mexican challenger Luis Nery (35-2, 27 KO’s) after surviving a surprise 1st-round knockdown to eventually win by technical knockout (TKO).
For his achievements, Inoue was rewarded with the “Best Male Boxer” award by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) a month ago. Inoue was also named the best fighter of Japan in February by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), winning the award for the sixth consecutive time in his career.
Oleksandr Usyk only fought twice over the past 12 months but also carved his name in legacy after first stopping British heavyweight (200+ lbs) Daniel Dubois (21-2, 20 KO’s) last August. However, it was this year in May when Usyk truly established himself as an all-time great after defeating British WBC champion Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KO’s) by split decision (SD) to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the modern four-belt era.
While both Usyk and Inoue have arguably done more to deserve the ESPY award by virtue of being more active and matching Crawford’s undisputed achievement themselves, Crawford has attained a lot of popularity since his victory over Errol Spence Jr.―which included one of the most dominant victories seen in combat sports over the past couple of years.
It is difficult to measure the ESPY’s criteria for the “Best Boxer” award, but one criterion that stands out is the fact that every nominee for this year’s award had become undisputed in 2023 or 2024. This suggests that the standards have risen compared to previous years when the “Best Boxer” award seemed more based on the exposure of the winners’ victories or their popularity, including Tyson Fury’s two victories over Deontay Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KO’s) in 2020 and 2021―resulting in Fury winning the ESPY award in those subsequent years.
