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After 12 months of exciting fights and even bigger moments, it's no surprise that so many big names would find themselves in contention for boxing's fighter of the year award to close 2025. 

The only thing left to debate is the actual criteria for such an award, especially when comparing campaigns like Terence Crawford, who scored only a single win over the past 12 months yet it was the defining one of his career and so impressive that it stands on equal footing with someone like fellow pound-for-pound stalwart Naoya Inoue, who defended his undisputed junior featherweight crown four times, albeit against lesser competition. 

While boxing endured a largely transitional year in 2025, especially from the standpoint of legacy promotions finding themselves at a crossroads just as TKO prepares to launch its new league, breakthrough performances were still plentiful. But which boxer stood out as the best overall for the year? 

Our panel of CBS Sports experts sat down, debated and cast our votes for boxing's fighter of the year. Let's take a look at the results.

More Best of Boxing in 2025: Fight of the Year | Knockout of the Year

Winner: Terence Crawford

Earning an honor as prestigious as this with only a single victory in any calendar year is difficult but there was simply nothing ordinary about the performance put forth by the unbeaten, 38-year-old Crawford in the final and most impressive bout of his 17-year pro career. The native of Omaha, Nebraska, who would retire from the sport just two months later, moved up three divisions in September from his welterweight prime to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion -- and Mexican legend -- Canelo Alvarez. Not only did Crawford look like anything but the smaller man after using his 13-month layoff to properly put on the muscle for his 168-pound debut, he ended up being the faster and even stronger boxer of the two throughout 12 brilliant rounds in a competitive unanimous decision. 

Watching Crawford land the bigger punches against the sturdy Alvarez was remarkable enough to see but he also left his fellow future Hall of Famer without answers as Crawford, who opened as a southpaw and never changed back to his natural orthodox, dictated the terms of the fight and instantly responded any time Alvarez built momentum. The victory made Crawford a five-division champion, joining an exclusive club that includes Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. He also became the first three-division undisputed champion of the four-belt era and a four-division "Ring" champion. Crawford scored the biggest victories of his career during his final years at an advanced age, fully cementing himself as not just 2025's best and most impressive boxer but one of the truly greatest in the history of the sport. 

Honorable mentions

Naoya Inoue

Talk about bad luck having to go up against Crawford. Regardless, the reigning P4P king and Japanese "Monster" put on a tour de force in 2025 as he became the first boxer since Larry Holmes in 1983 to make four defenses of his "Ring" championship. The undisputed king of 122 pound continued to dominate his fourth weight division by beginning the year with a knockout of late replacement Ye Joon Kim in January before rising from the canvas to finish heavy underdog Ramon Cardenas in May, in a fight that was one of the year's best. But to close out the year, Inoue relied much more on his pure boxing ability and speed in September to completely dominate former unified champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev over 12 rounds before doing the same in December to mandatory challenger David Picasso. The only thing Inoue lacked in terms of his resume was a slate of dominant opponents but he made up for it with consistency and a true showcase of what makes him great. 

Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez

The 25-year-old phenom from San Antonio, who closed the year as a promotional free agent, put forth a pair of dominant performances that only further proclaimed the southpaw slugger as one of the most versatile and P4P best. In July, Rodriguez unified 115-pound titles by stopping unbeaten Phumelala Cafu in a 10th-round TKO. But "Bam" saved his best performance for four months later in Saudi Arabia when he unified junior bantamweight titles a second time against unbeaten WBA titleholder Fernando "Puma" Martinez, who had been considered by many as the king of the division for years. Rodriguez dealt with the awkwardness of the aggressive Martinez well before putting on a virtuoso display of footwork and well-crafted combinations. A perfect counter left hand in Round 10 dropped and finished Martinez for good as Rodriguez added yet another impressive name to his growing resume at such a young age.

Lamont Roach Jr. 

In what likely should have been a breakout year for the 30-year-old from just outside of Washington, D.C., turned out to be bittersweet following a pair of bad-luck majority draws against top competition. Those who truly know the sport, however, can realize just how impressive the pair of performances from the former 130-pound titleholder truly were as Roach twice moved up in weight to headline pay-per-view bouts as B-side, appearing to pull the upset in both cases despite the controversy and disputed scorecards. In March, Roach challenged lightweight champion and former amateur rival Gervonta Davis in Brooklyn, New York. Not only did Roach stand up to the crushing power of "Tank," he landed some big shots of his own to wobble Davis in a fight that truly heated up in the second half. Roach would've scored a monster upset decision had it not been for a missed call from referee Steve Willis who chose not to rule a voluntary knee taken by Davis in Round 9 as a knockdown in a fight most felt Roach had already done enough to win. Nine months later in San Antonio, Roach moved up to 140 pounds and rose from the canvas in Round 3 to outslug Mexican star Isaac Cruz on the inside and force the aggressive "Pitbull" to back pedal and circle away. Instead of being given the breakthrough win of his career, the judges once again couldn't declare a winner. The biggest crime of it all is that none of the six judges scored either fight for Roach despite the fact that he used 2025 to build his star and reputation while showcasing both his toughness and adaptability at higher weight classes.