With the 2025 boxing calendar now halfway complete, BoxingScene is checking in with its staff to identify the early frontrunners for our annual awards. Today, we consider Upset of the Year.
More BoxingScene 2025 midyear awards:
Jake Donovan: I feel like the top two just occurred within the past four weeks, but I'm going with the one we just witnessed on Saturday – Rene Alvarado over Victor Morales. Jose Armando Resendiz messed up a lot of plans with his win over Caleb Plant. Weirdly, I feel like the manner in which he beat Plant was more shocking than the win itself. Morales really didn’t have any business losing to a (seemingly) shopworn Alvarado, much less getting manhandled the way he did.
Lucas Ketelle: Resendiz gets top honors. Viewed as a tune-up fight for Plant before he would inevitably fight rival Jermall Charlo, Resendiz tore up the script. Resendiz mixed in volume with his career-best defense to get the defining win of his career. Resendiz changed the trajectory of his career once again, not unlike when he upset Jarrett Hurd. Resendiz’s ceiling is undefined, but he is proving that if you don’t bring your best, he will beat you.
Ryan Songalia: I don’t really follow the gambling numbers closely, so it’s hard to quantify the magnitude of some upsets, but I think you have to consider Julian Rodriguez’s 10th-round knockout of Avious Griffin up there at the end of the year. My friend Matt Yanofsky told me before the fight that one betting parlor had Rodriguez as an 11-1 underdog, which is a bit absurd considering Rodriguez has a deep amateur background and can punch with either hand.
Tris Dixon: I feel like there have been a few this year, but I really did not see Resendiz beating Plant. I really did not. Rolly Romero beating Ryan Garcia was not on my bingo card. I had a sneaking suspicion Ekow Essuman might beat Josh Taylor, even though I went with the Scot. And I had high hopes for Charles Conwell, and did not see his loss to Jorge Garcia Perez coming.
Elliot Worsell: Because it hasn’t been said yet, I’ll go for Jazza Dickens beating Albert Batyrgaziev in Turkey. That seemed to take many people by surprise and the nature of the win was quite emphatic.
Jason Langendorf: We shouldn't forget Tiara Brown's upending of Australia's Skye Nicholson in a March challenge for Nicholson's women's featherweight belt in Sydney. Nicholson had conducted a 13-fight masterclass in her pro career up to that point, but Brown's aggressive, relentless bashing and stance-switching seemed to take the Aussie out of her game – and gave Brown the edge she needed to take a stunning split decision.
