The Japanese Boxing Commission and Sportswriters Club held their annual awards ceremony on Monday. The showpiece award, the 2023 Japanese Fighter of the Year, went to pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue, who won the award for a sixth consecutive year, his seventh in total.

Inoue comprehensively stopped Stephen Fulton in eight rounds to claim the WBC/ WBO junior featherweight titles in July. “The Monster” then became The Ring/undisputed 122-pound champion by defeating IBF/ WBA titlist Marlon Tapales in 10 rounds.

Inoue-Fulton was awarded Fight of the Year honors, while Seiya Tsutsumi vs. Kazuki Anaguchi was awarded domestically. Tragically, Anaguchi passed away from injuries suffered in that 10-round contest.

Kenshiro Teraji was awarded the Technique award he won last year. The 32-year-old retained his Ring, WBA and WBC junior flyweight titles by stopping Anthony Olascuaga (TKO 9) in April, and then stopped experienced former two-weight world champion Hekkie Budler (TKO 9) in September.

Left to right: Seiya Tsutsumi, Kenshiro Teraji, Naoya Inoue, Mizuki Hiruta, and Tenshin Nasukawa. Photo by Naoki Fukuda

The Most Valuable Victory award was given to Junto Nakatani, who knocked out Andrew Moloney (KO 12) to pick up the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title in April. It was eventually awarded The Ring’s 2023 Knockout of The Year. Nakatani then won a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over Argi Cortes (UD 12).

Excellent Boxer awards were given to WBA junior bantamweight titlist Kazuto Ioka, WBA bantamweight beltholder Takuma Inoue, WBC strawweight titleholder Yudai Shigeoka and IBF strawweight champion Ginjiro Shigeoka.

The Best Effort award was presented to former Japanese bantam champ Seiya Tsutsumi.

Junior featherweight prospect Tenshin Nasukawa, who notched two victories in 2023, won The Rookie award.

Trainer of the Year was awarded to Shingo Inoue, father of Naoya and Takuma.

WBO junior bantamweight beltholder Mizuki Hiruta again won female Fighter of the Year.

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