Katie Taylor has been crowned the BWAA Female Fighter of the Year for the second time in two years.
In doing so the Bray boxer is the first consecutive winner of the BWAA Christy Martin Female Fighter of the Year award.
Despite Covid-19 restrictions, Taylor successfully defended her lightweight titles in two behind closed doors contests in 2020.
In August, the 34-year-old defeated Delfine Persoon on points in their much-anticipated rematch.
And last month, Taylor recorded an emphatic victory over the previously undefeated Miriam Gutierrez.
“It’s such an honor to be chosen twice,” said Taylor, who now has a perfect professional record of 17-0.
“To win this award again is amazing. I’m hoping to be fighting in February or March of next year, and we’re not too sure who or where it will be, but I’m excited to be fighting again.
“Going into 2020, I was hoping this would be a good year for me. I was happy to finish off the year fighting my mandatory and I’m delighted to finish my year off strong. I always go into every year trying to make huge strides in the sport.”
Taylor sits on top of the organisation's pound-for-pound rankings, although she faced a lot of competition for this year's award.
“It was a tough decision between Katie and Jessica,” said Thomas Gerbasi, chairman of the BWAA women’s seven-person selection committee.
“In fairness, the McCaskill-Braekhus fight was very close, while Katie beat Delfine Persoon the second time more convincingly than she did the first time, and Delfine has long been on the pound-for-pound list.
“Then, Katie defended all of her titles against undefeated Miriam Gutierrez, who came in highly touted and was among The Ring’s top five lightweights. Katie beat her convincingly.
"Like I said, it was a tough vote this year, and I think you can also toss Mikaela Mayer and Terri Harper into the mix and say they had strong cases, too.
“It was a nice race, which shows where women's boxing is going these days.”
