Raymond Ford’s first world title fight hadn’t unfolded as planned.
Badly cut beneath his left eye and down on two scorecards, Ford needed to tattoo Otabek Kholmatov with exactly the type of right hand he eventually landed with just over 30 seconds remaining in their 12-round, 126-pound championship match on March 2 in Verona, New York. The southpaw from one of the United States’ most dangerous cities — Camden, N.J. — snapped back Kholmatov’s head with that shot.
Ford followed up with several power punches before he flung Kholmatov to the canvas with 25 seconds to go in their thrill-filled fight. Well aware he may be running out of time to make his championship dream come true, Ford (16-1-1, 8 KOs) then drilled a back-on-his-feet Kholmatov with another hard right that made the Uzbekistan native turn his back as he tried to prevent Ford from finishing him off.
Referee Charlie Fitch felt Kholmatov (12-1, 11 KOs) was in danger. He stopped their fan-friendly slugfest — Uncrowned’s Fight of the Year for 2024 — with seven seconds remaining in it.
Ford trailed 106-103 entering the 12th round, according to judges Eric Marlinski and John McKaie. Judge Don Ackerman had Ford in front 105-104 through 11 rounds of sustained action.
An overjoyed Ford fell flat on his back once their highly entertaining encounter ended at Turning Stone Resort Casino.
“My coach told me bring that dog out,” Ford, who won the WBA featherweight title, told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna in the ring. “We knew we were coming into [the] territory [of Kholmatov’s promoter, Top Rank]. This wasn’t under our promotion [Matchroom Boxing]. But we had to dig deep. And my whole time in the corner, I kept saying it to myself, like, ‘Imma stop him.’”
Earlier in the night, Kholmatov knocked Ford off balance with a right hook with just over 30 seconds left on the clock in the second round. Another overhand left by Kholmatov rocked Ford and made the American retreat with a little more than 30 seconds to go in the third round.
By that point early in their bout, it appeared as if Kholmatov’s power would be too much for Ford. A determined Ford fought from the pocket thereafter, though, and kept Kholmatov honest with hard head and body shots.
A right hook by Ford wobbled Kholmatov barely 40 seconds into the eighth round. Kholmatov moved around long enough to regain his senses quite quickly and landed various power punches of his own during the remainder of the eighth round.
Kholmatov’s punches opened a huge gash beneath Ford’s left eye in the middle minute of the 11th round. It looked like Kholmatov was in control in the round before Ford completed his remarkable comeback.
2. Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney
The dangerous Garcia caught Haney with a left hook that rocked him only 20 seconds into a fight Haney believed he would win convincingly after Garcia’s pre-fight antics seemed to indicate he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to compete at that level.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC), who also came in 3.5 pounds overweight, later dropped Haney in the seventh, 10th and 11th rounds on April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but Haney was effective enough between being buzzed in the first round and those knockdowns to have made their 12-round fight very competitive.
Garcia, of Victorville, Calif., won a majority decision because judges Robin Taylor (115-109) and Eric Marlinski (114-110) scored their back-and-forth fight for him. Judge Max De Luca scored their entertaining encounter a draw, 112-112.
The first loss of Haney’s career was ultimately changed to a no contest by the New York State Athletic Commission because Garcia tested positive for ostarine, a banned substance. Haney (31-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), of Henderson, Nev., later relinquished the WBC super lightweight title, which wasn’t at stake because Garcia didn’t meet the 140-pound limit.
3. Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 1
In the historic first meeting of this era’s greatest heavyweights, Usyk nearly knocked out the taller, larger Fury late in the ninth round on May 18 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An overhand left buzzed Fury, who was backed against the ropes.
Three subsequent lefts landed, the last of which made Fury stumble backward, into a corner. That sequence resulted in an official knockdown, the eighth of Fury’s career, because the ropes held him up with just under 10 seconds to go in the ninth round.
England’s Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs), who hurt Usyk with a right uppercut with just under 1:15 on the clock in the sixth round, recovered and made the remainder of their fascinating first fight compelling until the final bell. The big, brash Brit still suffered his first professional loss.
Spain’s Manuel Palomo (115-112) and Wisconsin’s Mike Fitzgerald (114-113) scored their fight for Ukraine’s Usyk, who won a split decision to retain his IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles and took the WBC belt from Fury. Six months later, the left-handed Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) defeated Fury again — this time by unanimous scores, 116-112, on the cards of Puerto Rico’s Gerardo Martinez, Chicago’s Patrick Morley and Panama’s Ignacio Robles on December 21 at Kingdom Arena.
4. Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 2
Their second showdown lived up to the expectations created by their initial fan-friendly slugfest.
Serrano suffered a gruesome gash over her right eye in the third round, yet she brawled with the determined Taylor throughout the ensuing six-plus rounds of sustained action on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson undercard Nov. 15 at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Referee Jon Schorle took a point from Ireland’s Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs) for leading with her head in the eighth round. She still won their 10-round bout by the same score, 95-94, on the cards of judges Jeremy Hayes, Nathan Palmer and Jesse Reyes to retain her IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO 140-pound championships.
Taylor debatably won their first spectacular slugfest by split decision in April 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York. A huge faction of fans felt Brooklyn’s Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs) deserved to win their 10-round rematch as well, but the seven-division champion’s defensive deficiencies cost her, even though she is a harder puncher whose shots seemed to do more damage.
Regardless, Taylor vs. Serrano 2 was the most-watched women’s boxing match in the history of the sport. Netflix estimated that an average of 74 million people watched the Paul-Tyson co-feature worldwide, whereas it maintained an average audience of 47 million in the United States.
The American viewership made their rematch the most-watched women’s sporting event in U.S. history.
5. Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Serhii Bohachuk
Ortiz entered the ring with a perfect record (21-0, 21 KOs), but Bohachuk produced flash knockdowns during the first and eighth rounds in their 12-round fight for Bohachuk’s WBC interim super welterweight title. The latter round, with it’s scintillating back-and-forth action, won Uncrowned’s Round of the Year honors for 2024.
Ortiz didn’t appear badly hurt either time he went down August 10 at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. The Grand Prairie, Texas native never seemed to affect Bohachuk, either, even though Brandon Adams knocked out the Ukrainian contender in the eighth round of their March 2021 bout.
Despite the two knockdowns Bohachuk scored, Ortiz won their satisfying firefight on the cards of judges David Sutherland and Steve Weisfeld, both of whom scored it 114-112 for the former welterweight contender. Judge Max De Luca scored Ortiz vs. Bohachuk a draw, 113-113.
Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) told Uncrowned recently that he believes he won at least eight rounds against Ortiz. He subsequently stopped England’s Ishmael Davis (13-2, 6 KOs) after six one-sided rounds on the Usyk-Fury 2 undercard December 21 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Here is how Uncrowned’s boxing team voted for 2024’s Fight of the Year.
