Just like any other sport, boxing is a game of continuity. The fights that we have seen a few months ago will see a follow up in the upcoming months, and the fights of tomorrow will see a rematch that spread throughout the year. This is why we love, dream and live boxing. The sport indeed creates a storyline, a narrative that many boxing fans can relate to. The boxer that won the belts in September, could be the same one to lose all the belts in the months to come, and this is why the love for boxing is molded with adrenalin, betting and an insane need to watch boxing matches.
Now that we have the 2021 boxing year all wrapped up, we can confidently say that 2022 is yet to transition into the year of boxing, the year of comeback fighters, the year of fighters turning professional and the year that cruiserweights make it to the heavyweight division. All the top bookies have come up with some of the biggest fights you do not want to lose in 2022. It is worth checking their reviews, such as the complete 1xBet review, before deciding on which bout you should bet on. So, let’s break them all down for you in order to get a better view.
Heavyweight Division
Anthony Joshua vs Oleksander Usyk
The Heavyweight division has been busy in 2021, with buckets of matches and offenses being thrown in the mix. September 2021 saw heavyweight and Olympic champion Anthony Joshua lose all his belts after a devastating loss against Oleksander Usyk. With Usyk cruising in from the middleweight division and also using the Southpaw stance, Joshua was no match, and lost all his IBF, WBO and WBA belts to the bubbly Ukrainian. The good news for Joshua is that most boxing fights contracts always hold a rematch clause, hence Joshua exercised his right to a rematch just a few hours following the devastating loss. Since the first fight happened in September, we envisage that the fight will take place sometime between March – April 2021, keeping in mind that boxing ranking demands a minimum of a fight every 6 months. If you ask any boxing fan which is the fight they will be looking forward to in 2022, this will definitely rank high, as this is an instrumental fight for Joshua. Will he be able to get his belts back and claim ‘ It was so nice, I had to do it three times?’ This is the first statement that AJ gave when he got his belts back from Andy Ruiz. Will AJ be able to pull another offense? Will the king reign supreme again?
Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte
Tyson Fury may be “the Gypsy King”, but he is just a beast in the boxing ring. Although we would have loved to watch and bite our nails to a Fury, Joshua bout, destiny had other plans for us boxing fans. Whilst Joshua lost all his belts, Fury is now set to fight the winner from the Joshua vs Usyk fight, in a match that will see the winner be declared boxing champion of the world unifying the IBF, WBC, WBO and the WBA belts. In the meantime, Tyson Fury, the reigning champion that won the trilogy fights against Deontay Wilder would need a new challenger. The said challenger in this case would be Dillian Whyte, the former WBC champion dubbed ‘The Body Snatcher’. We cannot say that we are not looking forward to this fight, but in all honesty, there are bigger matches tio think about, some being the above, and the unification bout.
Unification Fight
With so many at stake in the heavyweight division, the one fight betting sites are raving about the most has to be the unification fight. The winner from Usyk vs. Joshua will square off with the winner from Fury vs Whyte, and here we are already placing our bets. If we had to evaluate the current physical condition of the involved fighters, we’d say that we would most probably see a Usyk vs Fury match, with all the professional heavyweight belts on the line. One fighter will walk away with all the belts, and the other will walk away empty handed. We’d envisage that the fight will take place sometime during September / October 2022, pandemic permitting of course.
In the meantime, if Fury and Usyk want to get rid of Joshua, the latter demanded a cool 40 Million to step aside and let the boxing match happen.
Cruiserweight Division
Jake Paul vs Canelo Alvarez
A few weeks ago we saw an undefeated Jake Paul squash his beef with Tyron Woodley, with the latter suffering a brutal KO by the hand of Paul. A few hours following the win, cheeky Jake Paul blasted the following tweet to his 4.1 Million followers: ‘I hope you are training Canelo’. This is when the boxing world smirked at the outright brazen comment by the social media sensation. As we bring you this review, Canelo Alvarez is yet to respond to Paul’s threat. In the meantime we just hope that this fight will indeed happen. We’d give anything to see the media mogul get squashed once and for all.
Lightweight Division
Josh Taylor vs Jack Catteral
Undisputed lightweight champion Josh Taylor is set to meet and square off with rival and ‘enemy’ Jack Vatteral on the 26th of February 2022. With all the belts on the line (WBC, WBO,IBF and WBA), Taylor has been very vocal about his mandatory challenger. Defending his belts at all costs, Taylor promises to be ruthless, a powerhouse, and with all his belts remaining in his native Scotland. As much as we love boxing, the biggest fights to watch are the ones with titles on the line, and we just cannot wait for February 2022 to roll in. In the meantime, the current bets stand as follows: Josh Taylor 1/9, Jack Catterall 5/1 and a draw at 22/1.
2021 gifted us with many boxing matches, some we loved, some we loathed. We saw KOs, nasty cuts, weigh in exchange of words, and we always saw the 2nd downfall of Anthony Joshua. You win some, you lose some, this is the bottom line when it comes to boxing (unless you are Mike Tyson). Yet, we can all agree that the best is yet to come, and finally we will get one question answered: who will be the undisputed boxing heavyweight champion of the world? Will it be Fury? Will it be Usyk? Or will Joshua claim the title of comeback king yet again. Bring on 2022 ladies and get, let’;s get the boxing gloves ready, and let the sparring begin.