Naoya Inoue has been in the awards again, having been named Japan’s Boxer the of the Year at the annual Japanese Boxing Commission and Sportswriters Club ceremony in Tokyo.
The brilliant super bantamweight champion, dubbed ‘The Monster’, enjoyed a brilliant 2023, with decisive wins over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, and for many he was boxing’s Fighter of the Year.
Inoue is now 26-0 (23 KOs) and the 30-year-old is reportedly in line to face Luis Nery in May, but the wins over Fulton and Tapales saw him become the undisputed champion at super bantamweight having already done it at bantamweight.
“I wish to keep winning until the end of my career,” said Inoue.
The decision to present Inoue with the award was unanimous by the Japanese sports writers and the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC).
Inoue defeated Fulton in a one-sided fight in July, the same week Terence Crawford defeated Errol Spence in Las Vegas, and Tapales lasted into the 10th in December.
In other awards, Inoue-Fulton won Fight of the Year (world) and Kenshiro Teraji, WBC and WBA light flyweight champion, won the Technique award for the second consecutive year.
Junto Nakatani won the Valuable Victory award, and Kazuto Ioka, Takuma Inoue, Ginjiro Shigeoka and Yudai Shigeoka all won Excellent Boxer awards. The domestic Fight of the Year was awarded to Seiya Tsutsumi vs. Kazuki Anaguchi, the fight that saw Anaguchi pass away from injuries sustained in the contest.
Shingo Inoue, father of Naoya and Takuma, won Trainer of the Year.