Boxing's biggest winners and losers of June: Brian Norman Jr., Jake Paul lead roller-coaster month

Yahoo

02-07-2025

Jake Paul was a winner once again in June, much to the disappointment of many in boxing.
You know what they say: May showers bring June flowers, and that's exactly what happened in the weird and wonderful world of boxing this past month.
WINNERS
Brian Norman Jr.
STOP THE COUNT.
Brian Norman Jr. has already won 2025's Knockout of the Year award, so let's get that title in the mail to Georgia and draw a big emphatic line under the conversation.
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The sweetest and cleanest of left hooks left Japan's Jin Sasaki motionless, face-up in the middle of the canvas, subsequently unable to remember the last six weeks of his life.
Moving to 28-0 as a pro, this was the kind of statement victory that the 24-year-old needed in order to skyrocket him into the wider consciousness of the boxing public — and seemingly overnight, the WBO welterweight beltholder is now one of the hot tickets at 147 pounds.
Devin Haney awaits Norman this November in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to Turki Alalshikh.
Junto Nakatani
It's now five stoppage wins in five fights at bantamweight for the vicious Junto Nakatani, and the unbeaten Japanese superstar is edging closer and closer to what would be an extraordinary fight against his compatriot Naoya Inoue.
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Nakatani's latest win came via sixth-round stoppage against Ryosuke Nishida, moving him to 31-0 (24 KOs). Now he has a decision to make whether to stay at 118 pounds or leap into 122-pound waters.
Nakatani is arguably the fighter of the year thus far at the halfway point of 2025, thanks to two convincing knockouts of top-10 bantamweights.
Richardson Hitchins
There's always been something oddly beautiful about a perfectly-delivered liver shot.
Perhaps that's me speaking from the School of Ricky Hatton, but Richardson Hitchins' body-shot stoppage of George Kambosos Jr. elevated the unbeaten New Yorker into someone the Big Apple could hang its hat on for future outings.
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It was Hitchins' coming out party in the 140-pound division, gliding to a near-perfect win against the tough and experienced Australian. Teofimo Lopez and Devin Haney are just two of the names that await the 26-year-old in the ever-changing choppy waters of super lightweight — and, down the line at welterweight.
Jake Paul
Jake Paul has beaten former world champions in back-to-back fights and is now ranked among the top 15 global cruiserweights with the World Boxing Association — and what have you done today?
OK, the Marmite-esque Paul may not be the Messiah, but to quote Monty Python's "Life of Brian," he might also not quite be the 'very naughty boy' that certain corners of the boxing media want to suggest.
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Paul is dedicating himself to the craft of boxing, and as he continues pour money into the women's side of the sport with Most Valuable Promotions, he's going to gain more and more popularity. Whether he's actually any good or not will soon enough become apparent, but there is enough wrong in the sport without needing to lambast "The Problem Child' every time he makes headlines.
Fabio Wardley
Everyone loves a come-from-behind knockout. Well, except poor Justis Huni in this instance. The talented Australian was dominating Ipswich's hometown hero for 10 and a half rounds with slick combinations and classy movement, until — BANG! — Wardley landed a right hand from the Gods, leaving Huni in a confused pile on the canvas.
This, ladies and gentleman, is heavyweight boxing. When you posses the power Wardley clearly does, then, despite his technical shortcomings, the sky's the limit in the most dramatic of divisions.
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Huni comes out of this contest with a lot of credit and his stock increased, but including him in a list of winners would be a bit of a stretch after finding himself on the wrong end of one of the month's biggest knockouts.
Sorry, 'mayte.'
LOSERS
Keyshawn Davis
It wasn't a good month for Keyshawn Davis — and that's putting it lightly.
The former WBO lightweight world champion looked pretty content on the scales weighing 4.3 pounds overweight for his contest with Edwin De Los Santos, like a 420-pound guy might well do in his return to WeightWatchers following an all-inclusive trip to Mexico.
The fight was canned, and if losing out on a cool $1 million dollars wasn't bad enough, Davis lost plenty more in terms of respect, as he instigated an altercation with rival Nahir Albright in his locker room following Albright's win over his brother, Kelvin Davis.
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Davis had a successful boxing future in the palm of his hand, but this self-destruction — and more importantly, lack of remorse — may well be a sign of worse things to come as he moves through his career.
Galal Yafai
The youngest of the Yafai brothers was attempting to make history alongside Anthony Joshua and James DeGale by becoming only the third British male to win an Olympic gold medal and a world championship.
But that dream — for now — was comprehensively ripped out of his hands by Mexican challenger Francisco Rodriguez Jr., who beat the Briton from pillar to post over 12 uncompetitive rounds in Birmingham, UK.
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Yafai lost his unbeaten record and his WBC interim title at flyweight, but above all, the mystic that he could potentially be one of the boogeymen in the 112-pound division.
Francisco Rodriguez Jr. dominated Galal Yafai in one of the biggest upsets of June.
(Ben Roberts Photo via Getty Images)
Jaime Munguia
'Same piss, different pot,' when it comes to fighters A-samples and B-samples.
It's not often that a B-sample in boxing acts as Monopoly's get-out-of-jail-free card, and Mexico's Jaime Munguia found that out the predictably hard way this month as his adverse finding of exogenous testosterone was confirmed.
Team Munguia has spun the Wheel of Excuses, landing on contamination — and I'll be surprised as anyone if we reach an honest conclusion to this debacle before Munguia is allowed to enter the ring again as a professional.
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Boxing's grey area continues to cover more and more ground on the map.
Boxxer
We all remember our first break up, don't we?
But unlike Emily Appleby round the back of the bike sheds in 1996, Boxxer's first heartbreak with platform Sky Sports looks to be playing out a lot more publicly.
Boxxer, and their lead promotor Ben Shalom, were plucked out of relative obscurity four years ago to lead the media giant's boxing content, and this lucrative deal worth £36 million looks — according to a number of sources — to have come to an end.
It felt like Boxxer were attempting to push custard up a hill from the word go as they followed on from the "glory years" of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing, and Sky Sports will now go in the direction of one-off contracts on an ad-hoc basis for fights they wish to broadcast.
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Boxing purists
The great Vasiliy Lomachenko announced his retirement from the sport at the age of 37, leaving a hole in the heart of the boxing community.
In his pomp, the Ukrainian was as near perfect as you could imagine from a fighter, something his 18-3 professional record will never truly illustrate.
'Hi-Tech's' smooth, technically mesmerizing style left opponents bamboozled and — during a four-fight run between 2016-17 — quitting on their stools, unable to come close in attempting to solve his puzzle.
It's unlikely we'll see a fighter so accomplished as an amateur and professional any time soon.