The Ring’s 2022 Awards Nominees: Trainer of the Year

Gennadiy Mashyanov works mitts with Dmitry Bivol. Photo by Craig Bennett/Main Events

Jan

One of The Ring’s newer annual honors, Trainer of the Year was first awarded in 2011 to Robert Garcia, who repeated in 2012. Other recipients include Freddie Roach (2014), Derrick James (2017) and Eddy Reynoso (2019).

This year’s nominees are:

Bob Santos. The veteran conditioning and assistant coach stepped into the lead trainer role with a talented trio from the Dominican Republic, led by the breakout performer of 2022, Hector Garcia, the previously unknown junior lightweight who upset top contenders Chris Colbert (on short notice) and Roger Gutierrez (for the WBA title and the No. 2 spot in The Ring’s rankings). Santos also guided Alberto Puello to the WBA 140-pound belt and Carlos Adames up the middleweight rankings with significant victories in 2022.

Derrick James. The previous TOTY award winner had a banner 2022 with the stars of his stable winning title-unification bouts. Jermell Charlo became the undisputed junior middleweight ruler with his 10th-round stoppage of Brian Castano, and Errol Spence unified three welterweight titles with his 10th-round TKO of Yordenis Ugas. James also guided Frank Martin up the lightweight rankings.

Joel Diaz. The veteran trainer is involved with too many fighters to mention, but the core of his team is made up of talented group of former amateur standouts from Uzbekistan: unified 122-pound titleholder Murodjon Akhmadaliev (who defended his WBA and IBF titles with dominant 12th-round TKO of contender Ronny Rios), welterweight up-and-comer Shakhram Giyasov, super middleweight Bektimir Melikuziev, and junior flyweight Hasanboy Dusmatov, all of whom scored victories in 2022. Diaz also served as an assistant coach to heavyweight prospect Bakhodir Jalolov (with Tulkin Kilichev) and light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol (with Gennadiy Mashyanov).

Gennadiy Mashyanov. A former decorated amateur coach, Mashyanov finally gained professional recognition through his star

pupil Dmitry Bivol‘s stellar 2022 which consisted of masterful performances against undisputed super middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez and undefeated light heavyweight contender Gilberto Ramirez.