By: Ivan Gallegos
The month of December is giving us non stop boxing, with an event every weekend until Christmas Day. We started this cold month hot with three world title fights on December seventh, with Richardson Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) defeating Liam Paro (25-1, 15 KOs) in a majority decision win to claim the IBF Super Lightweight world title in Puerto Rico. Later that night in Phoenix, Arizona, we had Rafael Espinoza (26-0, 22 KOs) defend his WBO Featherweight world title against Robeisy Ramirez (14-3, 9 KOs) in a highly anticipated rematch that ended in a controversial technical stoppage. Then, to end the night, we had another exciting rematch between Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) and Oscar Valdez (32-3, 24 KOs), where Emanuel Navarrete defended his WBO Super Featherweight world title by stopping Valdez with a vicious body shot in the 6th round.
On December 21, we have the highly anticipated rematch between Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) and Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) for the Unified Heavyweight World Championship.
Their first fight was an instant classic, with Usyk coming out on top, making this one of the most mouth-watering fights of the year. It could also be the last time we see both fighters in the ring, so tune into what has instant classic written all over it.
But if that's not enough, we have one more fight that you may want to check out, as it will set up a monumental unification fight against the undefeated Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs).
On December 31 in Tokyo, Japan, Fernando "Puma" Martinez (17-0, 9 KOs) will face off against Kazuto Ioka (31-3-1, 16 KOs) in a rematch for Martinez's WBA Super Flyweight world title.
This December slate is the perfect way to end on a high note, and with big events coming up in early 2025, boxing is not slowing down on its quest to return to the top of the sporting world.
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