More than one century of The Ring’s coverage of boxing means there are thousands of ratings, assessments and awards to sift through when trying to make sense of things.

The awards, the “Fighter of the Year,” the “Fight of the Year” and so forth, tend to provide a snapshot of how a particular year in boxing unfolded.

The Ring began choosing a “Fighter of the Year” in 1928, with editor Nat Fleischer laying out the four accomplishments or characteristics of a prospective winner:

More official awards were eventually added, though most took a while. “Fight of the Year” and “Round of the Year” awards came in 1945, while “Upset of the Year” started in 1980 and “KO of the Year” in 1989.

Thankfully editors Steve Farhood and Nigel Collins revisited awards for every year of The Ring’s existence for The Ring’s 75th Anniversary issue in 1997, with the help of historians.

As we linger around the beginning of the calendar year, questions remain about the year to come and some are still quibbling about the one we just had. In early 1926, Sportswriter John J. Romano reacted to the year that was 1925:

“Any year in boxing which sees the world’s heavyweight title holder inactive is a dull year pugilistically. It has always been so; always will be.”

It was the second year in a row that Jack Dempsey didn’t fight at all, and the sport’s leading ticket-seller’s time away from the ring sent negative ripples down to everyone else. That was the argument, anyway, and even if it weren’t true, most fight media members repeated it.

Either way, 1925 was a year of transition, with the great Benny Leonard retiring and vacating the lightweight title, flyweight champion Pancho Villa dying on the operating table and several new champions crowned. It was “quiet,” and the fight game lacked interest.

• Fight of the Year: Harry Greb W15 Mickey Walker

• Fighter of the Year: Paul Berlenbach

• Upset of the Year: Dave Shade KO3 Jimmy Slattery

• Round of the Year: Gene Tunney vs. Tommy Gibbons Round 12

What 1925 lacked in spark, the next year made up for with a series of upsets and fights where nearly every world title in the sport changed hands.

“Boxing saw the greatest 12 months in 1926 that the sport has ever known, not only in point of popular support and public interest, but in the ability of contestants generally and the thrilling bouts they staged,” Romano wrote a year later.

• Fight of the Year: Gene Tunney W10 Jack Dempsey

• Fighter of the Year: Gene Tunney

• Upset of the Year: Pete Latzo W10 Mickey Walker

• Round of the Year: Gene Tunney vs. Jack Dempsey Round 1

The rest of the year was eventful enough to be able to recover from another champion, this time Harry Greb, dying while undergoing a surgical procedure. Walker outgrew the middleweight division, immediately adding excitement to the heavyweight division which was already full of fighters calling out Tunney, the new champion. The competition in lower-weight divisions was also swelling, setting the stage for an incredible late 1920s and early 1930s era.

What also ended up helping, at least in the U.S., was the addition of another American world champion in a new division recognized by The Ring in junior welterweight Mushy Callahan. In 1926, eight of 10 recognized world champions were from the U.S., and the two who weren’t, “Kid” Kaplan and Sammy Mandell, had lived in the U.S. since they were in preschool. Just as major promoters such as Tex Rickard promised to pump the brakes on investment into the sport in 1925, a series of new American champs renewed fan interest.

There is no guarantee, or even a suggestion, of a 100-year cycle of occurrences in boxing. But there are enough coincidences to merit some attention.

The current heavyweight champion actually fought in 2025, though it was only once and the heavyweight division isn’t considered a particularly strong or exciting one. Whether that truly meant anything for the rest of the sport in the 1920s or now isn’t clear, though historically the sport thrives when the heavyweight division does.

Boxing also lost two of its top stars in 2025 when Terence Crawford retired and Gervonta Davis found himself once more sidelined by legal issues, and the futures of Canelo Álvarez and Dmitry Bivol remain uncertain following surgical procedures for injuries. The sport is neither dull nor quiet at the moment, though it does seem coiled up and ready to spring as everyone deals with changes in streaming and media consumption, making this an obvious transitional period.

If it’s not mere coincidence, boxing fans could experience an eventful next 12 months. Many of the numerous champions are in their 30s and likely beyond their best days, and a few stars are aging and poised for a fall. Sad or not, new blood keeps the sport moving and helps create interest, as it did in 1926.

What’s important is that boxing fans experience anything at all. The future of boxing, especially long-term, is probably much brighter than most of us now realize. But the immediate future is also important, and how the next year unfolds has the potential to point boxing in a new and positive direction.