Boxing’s mid-year awards: The best fights, storylines and more so far in 2023

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  • Mike Coppinger

  • Ben Baby

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    Ben Baby

    ESPN Staff Writer

      Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports.
      He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs.
      A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).

Jul 14, 2023, 09:43 AM ET

With six months of boxing matches in the books, 2023 has already been filled with memorable moments, explosive knockouts and plenty of intriguing storylines that should set up a furious finish to one of the sport’s best years in recent memory.

From the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia super fight — boxing’s biggest commercial event since the second Canelo-GGG meeting — to Teofimo Lopez’s dominance over Josh Taylor and Devin Haney’s thrilling fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko, boxing has delivered in a big way this year.

Beginning with Naoya Inoue-Stephen Fulton and Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford during the last week of July, the second half of 2023 figures to top the first six months, and there will be plenty of stiff competition for year-end awards.

But for now, Ben Baby and Mike Coppinger take a look at some standout moments at the halfway point of the year:

KO of the half year

Coppinger: With six months to go, knockout artists will be hard-pressed to top Junto Nakatani’s destructive finish of Andrew Moloney. Fighting on the Haney-Lomachenko undercard in May, Japan’s Nakatani showed what all the hype’s been about with a monster KO in the final round to become a two-division champion.

Nakatani laid a beating on Moloney for 11 rounds and then opened him up with a double jab, followed by a brutal overhand left that folded Moloney with his legs convulsing on the mat. The southpaw is one of the sport’s elite fighters and should continue his march toward pound-for-pound recognition with what fans hope is a matchup with one of the junior bantamweight division’s stars in the second half.

Baby: It has to be David Morrell’s destructive KO over Yamaguchi Falcao on the undercard of the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia bout. Morrell unloaded on Falcao in the first round, knocking him down in the first round and immediately signaling that the fight wasn’t going to last very long.

Then, Morrell battered Falcao around the ropes before putting him down for good with a vicious right hook. That night, Morrell continued a destructive, if not morbid, streak of dishing out serious punishment. Before Morrell beat Falcao, the undefeated super middleweight stopped Aidos Yerbossynuly, who was placed in a medically-induced coma after the bout before he recovered and was released.

Fight of the half year:

Coppinger: Undoubtedly, the race is between two matchups at the moment, both promoted by Golden Boy: Jaime Munguia-Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Luis Nery-Azat Hovhannisyan. Both fights produced nonstop action and knockdowns, but only one bout featured high drama late in the fight, so the slight edge goes to Munguia-Derevyanchenko.

Munguia needed a knockdown to pull out the victory in Round 12, and he did just that. Simply winning the round would have resulted in a draw. The fact that Derevyanchenko was such a major underdog made the pitched battle all the more thrilling. Hopefully, there’s a deserved rematch in the near future.

Baby: It’s hard to argue against Munguia-Derevyanchenko, which was an incredible performance by both guys and one that gained Munguia some respect from boxing observers that he lacked before that evening. But in the spirit of highlighting good bouts, let’s give Luis Nery and Azat Hovhannisyan credit for their battle from February.

It was a bloody, action-packed brawl. Azat was cut early and both men combined for 1,284 punches, with 886 of those power punches. Nery knocked Azat down in the 10th before he pushed for the stoppage in the 11th.

Moment of the half year:

Coppinger: Let’s go with the Tank Davis-Ryan Garcia fight, a bout years in the making and one few in the boxing business believed would actually happen given the fractured nature of the sport. The fight pulled in fans from all walks of life, an event that transcended boxing and surely introduced many young people to the sport given their respective massive following.

And it’s likely this matchup created momentum that led the way to other marquee fights materializing. Devin Haney-Vasily Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez-Josh Taylor all took place afterward, and we still have the most highly anticipated of them all, Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford.

Davis’ seventh-round TKO of Garcia didn’t live up to the hype inside the ring, but it’s an important moment nonetheless that paved the way for boxing’s flourishing business.

Baby: How about the phone call between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford that ultimately made the bout? Throughout the media tour leading up to their undisputed welterweight fight, both men credited the call with smoothing over any disputes during the negotiation process, one year after the bout fell apart after it seemed it was bound to occur.

“It just took me calling him and us talking as men and coming to the agreement,” Crawford said on a July 12 teleconference. “That’s really how the fight got made.”

For boxing diehards, there is no fight bigger than this one. If it’s as good as many believe, it could down as one of the best title fights of the century.

Storyline of the half year

Baby: Who will be considered for the male fighter of the year?

There are a lot of good candidates for the honor. The winner of the Spence-Crawford and Inoue-Fulton bouts will have a great case as the best fighter in ’23 and end the year as the top men’s pound-for-pound boxer. And don’t sleep on Jermell Charlo, the undisputed 154-pound champ who is moving up two weight classes to fight Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed super middleweight champion. The fact there could be so many options after some incredible high-level fights is a great sign for a sport that is finally giving the fans what they want.

Coppinger: The sport is only as strong as its glamor division, so it has to be the the failed negotiations to deliver an undisputed heavyweight championship fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Along with that, we’ve also had continued talk of an unprecedented heavyweight doubleheader in Saudi Arabia featuring Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua.

The heavyweight division Wladimir Klitschko ruled over was in the doldrums, but a new era was ushered in with Fury’s thrilling trilogy with Wilder and Joshua’s former dominance. Now, movement in the heavyweight division has come to a screeching halt.

Rather than face Usyk, Fury is meeting Francis Ngannou in a major event while the Ukrainian will fight Daniel Dubois. Joshua has a rematch vs. Dillian Whyte on deck next month while Wilder and Andy Ruiz continue to exchange fighting words without a deal. If the Saudis can deliver a Wilder-Joshua fight, even if it’s not paired with Fury-Usyk, the year can close with a bang and reinvigorate the heavyweight division.

This article was originally published by Espn.com. Read the original article here.