The Boxing Writers’ Club will cease to exist after its final Annual General Meeting at the end of April.
Its treasurer, International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee journalist Colin Hart, 88, and its secretary, the respected David Smith, chose to stand down from their positions after that AGM, and because of their struggles to find a replacement the committee decided it was time for the London-based club that started in 1951 “to take a graceful bow from the centre of the ring”.
“The Club will be officially wound up at the AGM at the end of April,” read a statement. “But well before then we aim to go out in a blaze of social glory with a lunch to honour Carl Froch, a distinguished world champion who would surely have made his mark in any of those years since ’51.”
Joe Calzaghe, George Groves, Frank Bruno, Naseem Hamed and Frank Warren are among those to have also been honoured by the club on similar occasions. It also hosted an annual dinner at The Savoy.
“The Boxing Writers’ Club was formed by a group of Fleet Street’s finest [journalists] who wanted to celebrate our sport away from the ring in more convivial surroundings,” the statement continued.
Two of its most influential members, Alan Hubbard and Ron Lewis, died during 2023.
The club also celebrated a Young Fighter of the Year – the Geoffrey Simpson Award, which went to Johnny Fisher in 2023. Randolph Turpin won the first, in 1951; Barry McGuigan, Bruno, John H Stracey, John Conteh, Ken Buchanan, Nigel Benn, Hamed, Ricky Hatton, Calzaghe, Amir Khan and Hamzah Sheeraz are among the others.