The Boxing Writers Association of America on Monday released the results of its annual awards naming the best fighter, fight, trainer and manager of 2024, as well as several supporting honors.
Lineal, unified and de facto undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who defeated Tyson Fury twice in 2024, was named the BWAA Sugar Ray Robinson Fighter of the Year.
Usyk was also involved in what may be the BWAA’s other most prestigious award, the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier Fight of the Year, which went to his first meeting with Fury. Usyk battled and defeated Fury over 12 rounds on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Eddie Futch Trainer of the Year award went to Robert Garcia, who runs his eponymous boxing academy in Oxnard, California. In 2024, Garcia guided emerging pound-for-pound junior bantamweight star Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and new junior middleweight interim titleholder Vergil Ortiz Jnr, among others, while helping construct the perfect game plan for Jose Valenzuela to upset Isaac Cruz in August.
Egis Klimas was named the BWAA’s Cus D’Amato Manager of the Year. Klimas manages Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, who bounced back from a 2023 defeat to Devin Haney with a win over George Kambosos Jnr to win a lightweight title last May in Kambosos’ native Australia.
