Terence Crawford may have had the single greatest performance in the boxing ring of 2023, but it was not enough for him to be crowned the Fighter of the Year, according to Ring Magazine.
Instead, the prestigious award went to fellow two-division undisputed champion, Naoya Inoue.
‘The Monster’ defeated Stephen Fulton earlier in 2023 to become the new WBC and WBO super-bantamweight champion, before he finished Marlon Tapales in December to became the undisputed king of the division.
Boxing editor for talkSport, Michael Benson, recently took to X to share the news of Inoue’s award, and wrote this:
Terence Crawford’s sole fight this year came against Errol Spence Jr., with the pair facing off in July. Both men entered the ring undefeated and competed to decide the first undisputed welterweight champion in the ‘four belt era’ of boxing.
‘Bud’ put on one of the greatest performances in recent memory, and knocked Spence Jr. down three times en route to a ninth-round TKO victory.
He became the first male boxer to become an undisputed champion in two divisions, and was swiftly followed by Naoya Inoue, who replicated the feat against Tapales.
