Floyd Mayweather has been named Fighter of the Decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which also named Canelo Alvarez Fighter of the Year for 2019.
Mayweather beat out Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, Wladimir Klitschko and Andre Ward for his award.
“Money” went 10-0 (2 KOs) in the decade and beat two of the Fighter of the Decade candidations, Alvarez and Pacquiao. Among his other victims were Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Marcos Maidana (twice). Mosley has been elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame and Alvarez, Pacquiao and Cotto will join him one day.
Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) last fought in 2017, when he came out of retirement to stop MMA star Conor McGregor that August in Las Vegas.
“Thank you to the Boxing Writers Association of America for voting me Fighter of the Decade,” Mayweather said in a statement. “I am honored to be recognized by the media who covered my career throughout its’ many
decades.
“Boxing has been a part of my life since I was two years old and I dedicated my life to it and gave it my all. I trained hard, showed up for every one of my fights and did my job successfully each and every time. To retire undefeated and achieve what I did in the sport is not only a gift to myself, but to the fans and most importantly, my team and family. I certainly didn’t do it alone and I appreciate anyone who played a part in it.
“Hard work and dedication, something I did for my entire career. I am grateful and humbled by this honor. Thank you so very much.”
Alvarez, arguably the biggest star in the sport today, had his most successful year in 2019.
He unified two middleweight title by defeating highly respected Daniel Jacobs by a unanimous decision on May 4 in Las Vegas. He then went up two weight classes and stopped hard-punching Sergey Kovalev in 11 rounds on Nov. 2 in Las Vegas.
Alvarez, who received 81 percent of the votes, beat out Naoya Inoue, Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr. and Josh Taylor to become the first Mexican to win the award since Julio Cesar Chavez in 1987.
Also, Alvarez’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso, was named Trainer of the Year.
“This is a great honor and privilege, and something that I’m very proud to accomplish,” Canelo said. “It’s something I’ve waited for a while to achieve. I’m so happy to be a part of history as the second Mexican to win this.
“I’m overwhelmed with the news that Eddy received Trainer of the Year. I’ve worked with Eddy since I was at a young age. All of the hard work and sacrifices got us to this point. I’m happy that we’ve accomplished this together.”
The other Trainer of the Year candidates were Jay Deas/Mark Breland, Derrick James, Brian McIntyre and Manny Robles.
“I don’t have the words to express what this means to me,” Reynoso said. “We’re going to continue working hard to get this award for a few more years in the future, God willing.”
The winners of other awards were: Female Fighter of the Year, Katie Taylor (announced in December); Fight of the Year, Naoya Inoue vs. Nonito Donaire; Manager of the Year, Keith Connolly; Excellence in Broadcast
Journalism, Ward; Long and Meritorious Service, Bob Canobbio; Good Guy Award (tie), Boxing Junkie writer Norm Frauenheim and Tim Smith; Courage Award (tie), Adonis Stevenson and Marc Abrams; Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism, Graham Houston.
The winners will be honored at the annual BWAA awards dinner at a venue and date to be determined later this year. Tickets to the awards dinner will be available to the public and can be purchased at BWAA.org.