Ring Magazine Boxer of the Year

Ring Magazine Boxer of the Year
Awarded by Ring Magazine
Art	Boxing award
Data
First awarded	1922
Awards	99
Precedence

Ring Magazine has been awarding the World Boxer of the Year award every year since 1922 .

Boxer of the year after decade

1920s

year	boxer	nationality	annotation
1922	Harry Greb	United States United States	won the US light heavyweight title by a unanimous victory over Gene Tunney
1923	Jack Dempsey	United States United States	defended his world heavyweight title against Tommy Gibbons and Luis Ángel Firpo
1924	Harry Greb (2)	United States United States	defended his world middleweight title against Johnny Wilson , Fay Keizer and Ted Moore
1925	Paul Berlenbach	United States United States	won the light heavyweight title by beating Mike McTigue on points at Yankee Stadium in New York City ; defended the title against Jimmy Slattery , Emilio Solomon and Jack Delaney
1926	Gene Tunney	United States United States	won the heavyweight world title by a unanimous victory over Jack Dempsey in front of more than 120,000 spectators at Sesquicentennial Stadium in Philadelphia
1927	Mickey Walker	United States United States	defended his middleweight world title by knocking out Tommy Milligan ; also won his other four fights that year, including against Paul Berlenbach, Boxer of the Year 1925
1928	Gene Tunney (2)	United States United States	defended his world heavyweight title against Tom Heeney; resigned a few days after the fight
1929	Tommy Loughran	United States United States	defended his light heavyweight title against Jim Braddock , later world heavyweight champion and the boxer of 1927 Mickey Walker , lost the fight for the US heavyweight title against Jack Sharkey

1930s

year	boxer	nationality	annotation
1930	Max Schmeling	German Empire German Empire	became the first German and only the second European to win the heavyweight world title by winning a disqualification against Jack Sharkey
1931	Tommy Loughran (2)	United States United States
1932	Jack Sharkey	United States United States	defeated Max Schmeling in a controversial fight on points and thus became the new world heavyweight champion
1933	no awards
1934	Tony Canzoneri	United States United States
1934	Barney Ross	United States United States	defended his light welterweight title five times; also won the welterweight championship against Jimmy McLarnin , but lost the rematch
1935	Barney Ross (2)	United States United States	defended his light welterweight title against Henry Woods and Frankie Klick , then dropped that title; won the third duel with Jimmy McLarnin unanimously on points and was thus again world champion in welterweight
1936	Joe Louis	United States United States	defeated Jack Sharkey , among others , but lost to Max Schmeling
1937	Henry Armstrong	United States United States	won all of his 27 professional fights that year; Knocked out Petey Sarron and became world featherweight champion, but dropped the title shortly after the fight in order to fight in light and welterweight can
1938	Joe Louis (2)	United States United States	won his title defense of the heavyweight title against Nathan Mann , Harry Thomas and Max Schmeling prematurely; He knocked Schmeling out in the first round after 2:04 minutes and was celebrated as a hero by the Afro-American population
1939	Joe Louis (3)	United States United States	his title defense against John Henry Lewis , Jack Roper , Tony Galento and Bob Pastor prematurely

1940s

year	boxer	nationality	annotation
1940	Billy Conn	United States United States	defended his light heavyweight title against Gus Lesnevich
1941	Joe Louis (4)	United States United States	defended his world title seven times and won all seven fights prematurely, one of them by disqualifying his opponent; in the fight against Billy Conn he was even behind on points before knocking him out in the thirteenth round
1942	Sugar Ray Robinson	United States United States	won, among other things, the first meeting with Jake LaMotta
1943	Fred Apostoli	United States United States	the former middleweight world champion was named boxer of the year, although he did not complete a single fight that year, as he was fighting in World War II at the time
1944	Beau Jack	United States United States	lost his world championship lightweight title in a narrow points defeat to Bob Montgomery , from whom he recaptured the title in 1943 after Montgomery previously took his belt; in a total of fourth meeting of the two in August 1944, Beau Jack won, but the world title was not at stake in this fight
1945	Willie Pep	United States United States	defended his featherweight title
1946	Tony Zale	United States United States	Comeback four years after losing to Billy Conn; his knockout win against Rocky Graziano in the fight for the middleweight world title was named fight of the year by Ring Magazine
1947	Gus Lesnevich	United States United States	defended his light heavyweight title against Billy Fox through TKO
1948	Ike Williams	United States United States	Defending his lightweight title against Enrique Bolanos, Beau Jack and Jesse Flores
1949	Ezzard Charles	United States United States	won the vacant NBA heavyweight title against Jersey Joe Walcott ; defended the title against Gus Lesnevich and Pat Valentino

1950s

year	boxer	nationality	annotation
1950	Ezzard Charles (2)	United States United States	defended his NBA title against Freddie Beshore ; won against Joe Louis by a clear point victory and became the generally recognized world heavyweight champion
1951	Sugar Ray Robinson (2)	United States United States	defended his middleweight title against Jake LaMotta by TKO, then lost the title after a point loss to Randy Turpin and recaptured it two months later with a TKO win
1952	Rocky Marciano	United States United States	conquered the world heavyweight title against Jersey Joe Walcott , although he was on the ground in the first round and was clearly behind on points. He was able to knock Walcott out in the thirteenth round; the fight became fight of the year 1952.
1953	Carl Olson	United States United States	first won the vacant US middleweight title against Paddy Young and then the vacant world middleweight title against Randy Turpin
1954	Rocky Marciano (2)	United States United States	two victories in defending his world title against Ezzard Charles , the first by a unanimous victory on points, in the second victory he knocked Charles out in the eighth round, but had to fear a fight break before he had suffered a badly bleeding nose injury
1955	Rocky Marciano (3)	United States United States	won his two title defenses against Don Cockell and Archie Moore by TKO and knockout in the ninth round; in the fight against the reigning light heavyweight champion Archie Moore, he was in the second round on the ground, but brought Moore himself down five times; resigned after the fight against Archie Moore at the height of his career and thus ended his career as the first world heavyweight champion undefeated
1956	Floyd Patterson	United States United States	won the fight for the vacant world heavyweight title by knocking out Archie Moore
1957	Carmen Basilio	United States United States	first defended his world welterweight title against Johnny Saxton in their third meeting and then won the middleweight title against Sugar Ray Robinson by a narrow point win; the fight against Robinson became fight of the year 1957
1958	Ingemar Johansson	Sweden Sweden	remained European heavyweight champion and knocked out the hitherto undefeated Eddiemachen in the first round; first non-American since Max Schmeling, who became boxer of the year
1959	Ingemar Johansson (2)	Sweden Sweden	beat Floyd Patterson in the heavyweight championship fight by knockout in the third round, had him down a total of seven times in this round

1960s

year	boxer	nationality	annotation
1960	Floyd Patterson (2)	United States United States	conquered the heavyweight world champion belt from Ingemar Johansson with a knockout victory in round five; Patterson was the first to win the heavyweight title a second time
1961	Joe Brown	United States United States	defended his lightweight world title against Dave Charnley and Bert Somodio ; the fight against Charnley became fight of the year 1961
1962	Dick Tiger	Nigeria Nigeria	won the vacant WBA middleweight title by beating Gene Fullmer on points
1963	Cassius Clay	United States United States	Victories against Charley Powell, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper; his point win over Jones was fight of the year
1964	Emile Griffith	American Virgin Islands American Virgin Islands	defended his WBA and WBC welterweight titles against Luis Rodríguez and Brian Curvis
1965	Dick Tiger (2)	Nigeria Nigeria	regained his WBA and WBC belts from Joey Giardello, to whom he lost the title in 1963
1966	no awards
1967	Joe Frazier	United States United States
1968	Nino Benvenuti	Italy Italy	got the WBA and WBC middleweight titles from Emile Griffith back with a points win and defended the title against Don Fullmer at the end of the year
1969	José Nápoles	Cuba Cuba	won the WBA and WBC welterweight titles from Curtis Cokes ; defeated Cokes also in the rematch, in both fights Cokes gave up, and later defended the title against Emile Griffith