Featherweight world titleholder Carl Frampton made it a clean sweep for 2016 fighter of the year honors on Friday, when he was announced as the winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Sugar Ray Robinson award.
Frampton, of Northern Ireland, also claimed fighter of the year honors from ESPN, The Ring magazine and several other outlets for a year in which he unified junior featherweight world titles by outpointing Scott Quigg and then moved up in weight to outpoint Leo Santa Cruz in a fight of the year contender to win a featherweight world title.
Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) is the first Irishman to win the BWAA award in its 79-year history.
“I’m very honored by this,” said Frampton, who makes his first defense against Santa Cruz in a rematch on Saturday night (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “It was a great year, 2016. I started by beating longtime rival Scott Quigg at the start of the year. Against Santa Cruz, I know I was a big underdog. It was my first fight at featherweight and no one really expected me to do much. A lot of people were just hopeful I would put on a good performance and Leo would get the win. But I was confident that I was going to beat him. I thought I was the stronger fighter, and I thought I would be better at featherweight than I was at 122.
“It was a great year, but to be the first Irishman to win this is huge. There are a lot of great fighters to come out of Ireland, so it means a lot. The boxing writers choosing me is like winning an Oscar as an actor.”
Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan, Frampton’s manager, was thrilled that the man he sees as a son won the award.
“Winning the BWAA fighter of the year is like the Holy Grail for fighters,” McGuigan said. “We won other awards, but this is the big one, which includes all of the boxing writers that know and follow the sport. For Carl to become the first Irish fighter to win this award is incredible. I keep saying Carl has the potential to be one of the best Irish fighters of all time, so winning this creates a first.
“I’m really thrilled for Carl. This is magnificent news for Carl. I have three sons, and Carl is like my fourth son. He’s effectively become the worldwide fighter of the year, beyond dispute, and that’s what I think has been so special about this. The BWAA comes from the writers, which is the greatest honor he can get. It’s the Holy Grail of boxing awards, and we’re absolutely thrilled with it.”
Frampton won the balloting over finalists Terence Crawford, the junior welterweight world champion and 2014 winner; pound-for-pound king and junior bantamweight titleholder Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez; junior lightweight titlist Vasyl Lomachenko; welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao, a three-time winner of the award; and light heavyweight Joe Smith Jr.
Shane McGuigan, one of Barry’s sons and Frampton’s trainers, claimed the Eddie Futch trainer of the year award.
Frampton, McGuigan and the rest of the award winners will be honored at the 92nd annual BWAA awards dinner on March 16 in New York.
Junior lightweight world titleholder Francisco Vargas and former titleholder Orlando Salido claimed the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight of the year award for their incredible action in June that ended in a draw. It is the second year in a row Vargas has been half of the fight of the year, having also claimed honors in 2015 for his comeback knockout of Takashi Miura to win the 130-pound belt.
Vargas-Salido was also the 2016 ESPN fight of the year. Vargas-Salido got the nod over Frampton-Santa Cruz; Gonzalez-Carlos Cuadras; Jesus Soto Karass-Yoshihiro Kamegai I; Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter; and Dillian Whyte-Dereck Chisora.
Egis Klimas, who manages Lomachenko, former unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev and a slew of top prospects, won the Cus D’Amato manager of the year award.
Showtime’s Gordon Hall, who has been with the network for 27 years and is executive producer of the popular prospect-oriented series “ShoBox: The New Generation,” won the Sam Taub broadcast award.
Lee Samuels, the beloved Top Rank publicist, won the Bill Crawford award for courage in overcoming adversity. Samuels and his wife, Mary, were devastated when their son, Eddie, died unexpectedly of heart failure on Aug. 16.
“The devastation to parents is unbelievable,” said Samuels, who found the strength to continue working through the tragedy.
Bill Caplan, the public relations legend who worked for virtually every big-time promoter over the past 40-plus years, will receive the Barney Nagler award for long and meritorious service to boxing.
Longtime publicist John Beyrooty, a former boxing writer for the old Los Angeles Examiner, claimed the Marvin Kohn good guy award. Since 1999, Beyrooty — who gave Oscar De La Hoya his “Golden Boy” nickname, has handled boxing publicity for Brener-Zwikel and worked on the Showtime account.
The BWAA also announced it will honor Top Rank chairman Bob Arum at the dinner for his 50 years in boxing. He has promoted a who’s who of superstars, including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao.
