As the year draws to an end, it’s time to recap on what happened in 2022 in boxing around the world. The WBA team has picked out 12 important boxing moments during 2022.
Claressa Shields Guinness
In January of this year, the undisputed middleweight champion Claressa Shields received the Guinness Award for being the athlete (male or female) to become world champion in three categories. The U.S. champion needed only 11 fights to do so, a record for the sport.
KO Drugs Panama
The WBA KO a las Drogas Festival returned to Panama in style during the month of March with an extensive event that featured fighters from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua and, of course, the home country. After two years, Panama experienced a great boxing card with world and regional championships that, as always, had the objective of using sport as a means to help young people and keep them away from drugs.
In addition to the Panama festival, the pioneer organization also KO’d Drugs in Argentina during the month of June and closed in Orlando, Florida with the third and final 2022 in December.
Wood knocked out Conlan spectacularly
On March 12, Nottingham witnessed one of the most impressive knockouts of the year from WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood, who defeated Ireland’s Michael Conlan in round 12 after a close and action-packed bout. It was impressive to see Wood knock Conlan out of the ring and pull out a victory after being down in the first round and being in danger on several occasions.
Spence, the best welterweight
Errol Spence Jr. proved his high level and his unquestionable place as the best welterweight in the world. . On April 16, he dominated Yordenis Ugas with a 10-round technical knockout in Arlington. Spence went from strength to strength and ultimately demolished the Cuban to take three of the four major belts.
Taylor vs Serrano shock the world
On April 30 at Madison Square Garden, Ireland’s Katie Taylor and Puerto Rico’s Amanda Serrano featured the most impressive fight of the year and perhaps the best women’s fight in history. The fight was full of action and exchanges with great moments for each of the fighters. Taylor ultimately claimed the victory on the scorecards and retained the lightweight titles.
Bivol stopped Canelo
On May 7, the world witnessed the rise of a new world star in the Russian Dmitry Bivol. The WBA light heavyweight champion defended his title against Saul Alvarez and cut the Mexican’s streak in dominant fashion to leap to fame. Although boxing connoisseurs already knew what Bivol was capable of, it was his chance to prove himself to the world and bring his career to a whole new level. The champion returned to the ring in November to defeat Gilberto Ramirez to close out a great 2022.
Usyk returned in style
One of the big news of the year was the permission Oleksandr Usyk received from the Ukrainian government to abandon the defense of his country from Russian aggression and return to boxing. On August 20 he stepped into the ring in Jeddah for his rematch against Anthony Joshua and defeated him again in a 12-round hard-fought bout. Great news for boxing, which had one of its best representatives back.
Canelo-GGG3
On September 17, the long-awaited rematch between Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin took place in Las Vegas. The first time they met in 2017 the fight ended in a draw and by 2018 Alvarez won by a short margin in the second fight. This time, the Mexican won again but not before having to use his best against the Kazakh, who came from less to more in the fight and posed a difficult challenge to the super middleweight champion.
Claressa got his revenge and kept everything.
In boxing there is no such thing as a perfect fight, but the fight between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshal last October 15 in London, could be taken as a reference. The American faced the Briton, against whom she had lost in the amateur field years ago, and this time she managed to beat her in a very entertaining fight in which Shields pulled out all her tools to dominate and take all the middleweight belts.
Haney reigns at lightweight
Devin Haney rematched George Kambosos Jr. in Australia on October 16 and repeated history to remain the undisputed lightweight champion. The amount of talent in the division makes the position of the 23-year-old American fighter, who is also the youngest in history to hold all four belts in a division, very commendable.
WBA moved closer to amateur boxing
The WBA signed an agreement with IBA, the most important amateur boxing organization in the world, to strengthen ties and contribute directly to amateur boxing. Gilberto Jesús Mendoza and Umar Kremlev closed the agreement at the end of November and now boxing will enter a new stage that seeks to rescue its Olympic wing and reposition it at the top.
Orlando Centennial Convention
The year closed with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the WBA at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The event, which took place from December 11 to 14, had great guests and touched on great historical and current topics, including the mental health of fighters. It was a special occasion in which 100 years of existence were reviewed and the foundations for the future of the sport were laid.
