Promoter of the Year - Top Rank Inc, had yet another marquee year being a part of the best modern heavyweight fight in not just this year, but quite possibly the last 20-years in Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III, Oscar Valdez winning the WBC super featherweight world title in dramatic fashion, signing every male Olympian to Top Rank Inc, most notably lightweight Keyshawn Davis and heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr.
The only downside of the year, was Teofimo Lopez, who held a form of every world title went to a rival network, and lost the belts to a network agonist fighter in George Kambosos Jnr., who is signed to DiBella Entertainment.
Top Rank saw Shakur Stevenson, and Jared Anderson ascend this year, as Stevenson is now a bonafide main eventer, and Anderson looks to be on track to be that next year. Young talent such as Xander Zayas, has the future looking bright, and world champions such as Artur Beterbiev could draw in a Canelo fight in the new year. Oh, and we forgot to mention, Josh Taylor the undisputed 140 lbs. champion, who put on a classic fight with Jose Ramirez to win the belts.
At one point, Top Rank had two undisputed world champions in Teofimo Lopez at light and Josh Taylor at 140 lbs. That is a quality year.
Top Rank continues to bring a great boxing to main stream television on ESPN, and creates solid content around the fight to keep me engaged more so than just for the weigh-ins or fight night.
Honorable Mention
Premier Boxing Champions - A gold standard of boxing promotion and entertainment, that seemingly has the model of concerts coming to different cities and the brand “PBC” stands for a form of excellence in boxing. They put on a slew of great fights from Deontay Wilder, Gervonta Davis, David Benavidez, and many other industry leaders, but two things hurt their ranking. They had a lot of PPVs in a year after the United States economy shut down in 2020 because of COVID-19, and they don’t stream their undercard fights which I find silly, as we will never see a broadcast of Vaughn Alexander vs. Luis Arias, which was a good fight. PBC is top-tier and their Fox and FS1 shows are some of the best matched bouts on TV currently.
Matchroom Boxing - Eddie Hearn puts on a great show, treats the fighters well, it is easy to see any fight you want and has top-tier programming in-and-out of the ring. The thing is a lot of top guys lost this year, Anthony Joshua, Mikey Garcia, Kid Galahad, Josh Warrington, and now we have to see how he can rebuild these careers, as well as what young American fighters can be the first Matchroom fighter to be a major hit stateside, as Matchroom is void of their first true American star, as of yet - homegrown that is.