By CARLO ANOLIN
World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire was nominated as 2021 Fighter of the Year while his wife and trainer Rachel made it into the list of Manager of the Year nominees by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA).
Donaire is joined by the likes of fellow boxing stars Canelo Alvarez (super middleweight – WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring), Stephen Fulton Jr. (super bantamweight/junior featherweight – WBC, WBO), Tyson Fury (heavyweight – WBC, The Ring), Josh Taylor (super lightweight/junior welterweight – WBA, WBC IBF, WBO, The Ring), Oleksandr Usyk (heavyweight – WBA, IBF, WBO) in the Sugar Ray Robinson Award Fighter of the Year.
Rachel, for her part, is vying for the Cus D’amato Award Manager of the Year nominees against Luis DeCubas, Rick Mirigian, and Eddy Reynoso.
Donaire had an explosive 2021 after scoring back-to-back fourth-round knockout wins in May and December.
.The “Filipino Flash” first dethroned Frenchman Nordine Oubaali to capture the WBC bantamweight title in May before knocking out compatriot Reymart Gaballo for his first title defense.
Prior to that, Donaire, 39, has not seen action since suffering a unanimous decision loss against Japanese Monster Naoya Inoue, now the reigning, unified super WBA, IBF, and The Ring bantamweight champion.
On top of his nomination, Donaire, WBC’s Comeback of the Year winner, was the lone Filipino boxer to be included in the annual year-end awards by the BWAA.
“All full BWAA members are eligible to vote, if their dues are paid for 2022. Voting can be done on the BWAA.org website under the ballot/voting tab. Only full BWAA member’s vote will register,” the BWAA’s announcement read.
Winners will be announced on Monday, March 14.
Other nominations include the Muhammad Ali – Joe Frazier Award Fight of the Year, the Eddie Futch Award Trainer of the Year, the Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award, the Barney Nagler Award Long and Meritorious Service, and the John McCain-Bill Crawford Courage Award.
