Froch wins award 4th year running...

www.britishboxing.net

It was a case of deja-vu when once again Carl Froch picked up the Boxer of the Year award at the Midlands Area Awards ceremony in Birmingham last week. Froch the British champion at super-middleweight has now won the trophy four years on the trot, not bad for a boxer who only turned professional in March 2002. Froch only had two fights in the season, and they lasted only five rounds but he still did enough to beat off the challenge of Wayne Elcock and Darren McDermott to pick up the award. Now ranked as the mandatory challenger by the European Boxing Union and in the top ten of four of the five top world organisations rankings, Froch is currently recovering from a knee injury suffered during sparring with Andrew Lowe, but looks to be back in the ring in November with a mandatory defence of his British title against former WBC champion Robin Reid.

The awards ceremony which is the only one of it's kind in the country was once again brilliantly organised by Area secretary Les Potts and Area Chairman, former heavyweight, Dave Roden, and per normal everything went off without a hitch, although numbers were down a bit on previous years. Wolverhampton's Dean Harrison who turned pro in his hometown in October 2006 and has since picked up seven wins, picked up the Young Boxer of the Year award which was presented to him by former British heavyweight champion Bunny Johnson. Fight of the Year in the Midland's went to Tyrone Wright and Michael Monaghan for their pulsating Midlands Area title fight which Wright won with just one second left in the fight. The confident Wright found time to call out Carl Froch during his presentation speech, claiming that his fellow Nottingham based boxer was just minding the belt for him.

Almost twenty-five years on from his most famous win over Panama's Roberto Duran, it was good to see Kirkland Laing well enough to attend as the year's Boxer of the Past. It was a nice gesture by Oliver Jarrett, who is trying to write a book on the former British and European champion, to allow Laing's former opponent and fellow Midlander Achille 'Speedy' Mitchell to present the award to Laing. Awards for services to boxing went to Martin Florey who works tirelessly for the not just the Midlands' Area but also for the Midland's Ex-Boxers associtation. Second Bob Plant was also singled out for special praise on the night as was board official Don Bartlett.John Thomas of the Wolverhampton Amateur Boxing Club also won an award for Outstanding Services to Boxing in the Midlands, he has been with the club since the late 1970's and the night is special in that it awards not only the best in the area but the unsung heroes like John. Shaun 'Slasher' Walton was voted as the best supporting boxer of the year, beating off rivals Kristian Laight and Jason Nesbitt to pick up the deserved acolade.

Also unveiled on the evening was the new Midland's Area belt which it is hoped will be given free to boxers when they have successfully defend the title a couple of times. Mike Shinfield did a magnificent job as the MC for the evening then Chris King took over with the entertainment for the evening before the DJ swung into action to close off another successful awards ceremony and long may the continue.