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Boxing has witnessed its share of high-profile shocks and long-odds stunners over the years. And although the element of surprise is the main ingredient in every upset, each one is built a little differently than the next. This year never delivered anything that rose to the level of, say, Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson or Jim Braddock-Max Baer, but one result did manage to both gobsmack fight fans while also gumming up future plans in a way that is rarely seen in the sport.
That’s why Armando Resendiz’s surgical split decision win over Caleb Plant in their interim super middleweight title fight is BoxingScene’s 2025 Upset of the Year.
A main event in name only, Plant-Resendiz, held on May 31 at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, was designed as a stepping stone for Plant, a former super middleweight belt holder, to face former middleweight and junior middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo. The setup: At Terence Crawford’s July 2023 stoppage of Errol Spence Jnr in Las Vegas, Plant had slapped Charlo in an altercation that eventually led to their angling toward one another in the ring. A card was put together topped by Plant-Resendiz and co-featuring Charlo against Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna in another lopsided fight – only the plans to later match the expected winners never made it beyond the first step.
Resendiz wasn’t exactly a no-hoper – he entered the Plant fight at 15-2 (11 KOs) and had stopped former junior middleweight titleholder Jarrett Hurd in 2023 – but was objectively the darkest of horses. In retrospect, Hurd was shot by the time Resendiz faced him, and it seemed likely that Resendiz – a 26-year-old from Rincon de Guayabitos, a small resort town in Mexico – had shown his true colors in the follow-up, a knockout loss to Elijah Garcia. Truthfully, Plant’s team should have been confident in the matchmaking: Resendiz’s only action in the 20 months between Garcia and Plant had been a win over 5-2 Fernando Paliza in an eight-rounder three months before fight night.
But Resendiz showed something else entirely against Plant – who came in at 23-2 (14 KOs) – often beating his 32-year-old opponent to the punch and, as the fight wore on, increasingly catching Plant before he could back out of range. According to CompuBox numbers, Resendiz outlanded Plant by a wide margin (186-108), including overwhelmingly in each of the last eight rounds of the fight.
There have been talks of a matchup with Edgar Berlanga for Resendiz, and it’s always possible that Charlo’s people could find value in a matchup with Plant’s conqueror. In any case, Resendiz has set himself up for much bigger business than anyone previously could have expected for him – and Plant-Charlo has, as you might imagine, died on the vine.
Honorable mention:
Fabio Wardley TKO11 Joseph Parker: By now, Wardley’s story is well-known by most fight fans: A former recruitment consultant and weekend footballer, Wardley took up boxing as a lark, fought four white-collar bouts, thought “What the heck,” and turned pro in 2017. Twenty fights later – all but two of them knockout wins – Wardley found himself in the ring at London’s O2 Arena on October 25 taking on former heavyweight titleholder Joseph Parker for an interim belt.
Discount Parker all you want for being shopworn at age 33, but he entered the Wardley fight at 36-3 (24 KOs) and had outdueled Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole in succession. Wardley gutted out a barrage from Parker, survived a precarious moment in the 10th, then roared back to put his opponent down a round later. It was a cinematic finish for a modern-day “Cinderella Man,” and now that Wardley has been elevated to full titleholder, he may well get a crack at Oleksandr Usyk and, impossibly, the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
Jorge Garcia Perez SD12 Charles Conwell: When they met at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California, on last April 19, Conwell was an undefeated former 2016 U.S. Olympian on the rise and Garcia Perez was a fighter who was only just emerging from the small halls of Tijuana, Los Mochis and all points in between in his native Mexico. But Garcia Perez, 32-4 (26 KOs), had heart and a punch, and he was riding a seven-fight winning streak that had seen him travel to the Dominican Republic, South Africa and the U.S. to beat increasingly capable competition.
Even so, Conwell was considered a wide favorite, and he had righted himself since a listless close call in a majority decision win over Juan Carlos Abreu in 2022. Or so the thought went. Instead, Garcia Perez’s length and activity appeared to be a puzzle for Conwell, who by the late rounds seemed to all but give up on the idea of solving it. Garcia Perez fought the more determined, focused fight, commanded an edge on the scorecards (115-113, 113-115, 115-113) and earned the title shot against Xander Zayas that had been lining up for Conwell.
Terence Crawford UD12 Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: It’s a little lazy to look back on this one in hindsight and scoff at the idea of it being characterized as an upset. Yes, Crawford is a brilliant all-timer of a fighter, and he systematically took Alvarez apart in their September 13 showdown at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. But he also is three years older than Canelo and a former lightweight who, until 2023, had never fought above welterweight. With Crawford leaping two weight classes to challenge a future Hall of Famer, it’s no wonder Alvarez was a -180 favorite at some sportsbooks.
But Crawford yet again showed his class, working his jab early, then nibbling at Canelo in the middle rounds before taking bigger bites, then blitzing him with hard combinations from multiple angles. Alvarez was always at least a half-step too slow, whether launching his own attack or evading Crawford’s. The scorecards 115-113, 115-113, 116-112 came up shy of describing the pillar-to-post cuffing Crawford doled out in what (for now) appears to be his swan song.
Rolando “Rolly” Romero UD12 Ryan Garcia: Romero deserves credit for fighting his way up the ranks at lightweight and junior welterweight – and then mostly talking his way into contention from there. Consider that the three fighters he faced before landing a lightweight title shot against Gervonta Davis were Jackson Marinez, Avery Sparrow and Anthony Yigit. And after being stopped by Davis in six rounds, Romero sandwiched wins over underwhelming opponents Ismael Barroso and Manuel Jaimes around another stoppage loss, to Isaac Cruz. Before facing Garcia, Romero had yet to show he belonged on the big stage as more than a silver-tongued fight salesman.
And then he did. In their May 2 meeting at New York’s Times Square for a “regular” welterweight belt, Romero fought a thoughtful fight against the heavy-handed Garcia, avoiding big exchanges and, in the second round, even outhooking the hooker. When Garcia curled his signature left hand thudding against Romero’s ear, he lingered in the pocket long enough for Romero to counter with a picturesque double hook that crunched Garcia’s jaw and sent him sprawling to the canvas. Garcia got back to his feet but was never able to wrest control of the fight back from Romero.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
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