Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford Snubbed As Boxing's ESPY Award Nominees Announced

ESPN today announced the 2025 ESPYS nominees. The annual show recognizes athletic achievement and sports performances by individuals and teams during the 12 months prior to the show.

Included this year's boxing category were Claressa Shields, Oleksandr Usyk, Katie Taylor and Naoya Inoue. Inoue and Usyk also received nominations in 2024.

Shields fought twice since The ESPYS were last held on July 11, 2024. She took on Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on July 27 in Detroit, Michigan, winning by TKO in the second round. The victory earned her the WBC and vacant WBF heavyweight titles, and the WBO light heavyweight title.

She followed that fight up with her next on February 2, 2025 in Flint, Michigan, where she defeated Danielle Perkins via unanimous decision. With the win she retained her WBC and WBF titles, while earning the vacant IBF, WBO and inaugural WBA heavyweight titles.

Oleksandr Usyk fought once, facing Tyson Fury in what was a follow up to their May 2024 fight in Saudi Arabia that saw Usyk win by split decision. In the December 2024 fight, also held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Usyk won by unanimous decision, retaining his WBA, WBC, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles.

Katie Taylor last fought in November 2024, where she faced off against and beat Amanda Serrano for the second time. With the unanimous decision win, she retained the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring light-welterweight titles. The two are set for a trilogy showdown at Madison Square Garden in New York on July 11, just head of the awards, in all all women's card broadcast on Netflix.

And finally, Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue got his second straight nod. Inoue fought three times since the last awards show was held. He first beat TJ Doheny by TKO in the 7th round in September of 2025. He followed that win up by defeating Kim Ye-joon by KO in the 4th round in January 2025.

Inoue's last fight was held last month in Las Vegas, where he defeated Ramon Cardenas in a gutsy win via TKO in the 8th round. In all three fights Inoue retained the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring super bantamweight titles.

The ESPY Awards are set to take place on July 16th at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Latest Boxing News

Manny Pacquiao Gives Candid Response To Canelo Saying Crawford Is Better Than Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather’s Uncle Fires Back After Canelo Alvarez Says Terence Crawford Is The Better Fighter

Oscar De La Hoya Predicts Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford Amid 'Lame' Admission

Jake Paul Taunts Canelo Alvarez With Hilarious Video Ahead Of Chavez Jr Clash