Natasha Jonas became the first female winner of the British Boxing Board of Control’s fighter of the year award when she was honoured in recognition of her success throughout 2022.
The 38 year old in February 2022 won the vacant WBO light middleweight title when she stopped Chris Namus, and proceeded to win the WBC title by outpointing Patricia Berghult in September, and in November, that of the IBF with another decision victory, over Marie Eve Dicaire.
A further demonstration of the evolution of women’s boxing came in Claressa Shields being named overseas boxer of the year, for her victory in Cardiff over Ema Kozin, and more significantly by becoming the first to defeat Savannah Marshall, and therefore to unify all four world middleweight titles.
“This is dedicated to all the little girls and boys,” said Jonas after winning an award previously given to, among others, Lennox Lewis, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe and Anthony Joshua. “This isn’t just 2022. This has been 18 years of hard work and dedicating my life and missing out on big occasions.
“There’s so many times I’ve wanted to quit. There’s so many times I’ve come home and cried.”
Asked about a potential fight with Shields, she responded: “We’ve had the conversations. There’s only one thing stopping it, and hopefully we can overcome that and get one of the biggest fights in women’s boxing on.
“We want to keep women’s sport, and women’s boxing, at the top of the game. ‘Cause we always knew how good it was. We just needed the world to see it, and the platform.”
Chantelle Cameron, Sunny Edwards, Joe Cordina, Leigh Wood and Joe Joyce were Jonas’ rivals for the award. Upon the 27-year-old Shields accepting hers, via a video from the US, she said: “I’m just so happy and overwhelmed. To know that you guys even thought of me for this award; to be able to go and fill out the O2 Arena, 20,000 fans, two million viewers, six million people worldwide and to defeat Savannah Marshall, it means everything to me.”
The WBA featherweight title fight between Leigh Wood and Michael Conlan was awarded contest of the year, and Wood, the winner that night in March 2022, said: “It takes two to be in fight of the year. A shoutout to Mick as well.”
Wood lost that same title when being stopped by Mauricio Lara last month, and he said: “If I don’t get that rematch next, I will be heartbroken. Early summer, late spring; let’s get that belt back.”
Sheffield’s Grant Smith, the trainer of Sunny Edwards and Dalton Smith, was named the Boxing News trainer of the year, and the cruiserweight Chris Billam-Smith, 32, won the Dennie Mancini commonwealth council award.
