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Pacquiao feted by U.S. scribes
Feb 5, 03:15 PM

Third Fighter of the Year Award puts boxing icon in league with Ali, Frazier, Leonard and Holyfield

By JUN MEDINA

NEW YORK – Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao was chosen 2009 Fighter of the Year on Monday by the Boxing Writers Association of America, becoming the first non-American to have won the prestigious title a third time and putting him alongside some of the best American boxers of all time.

The boxing scribes also picked Pacquiao, 31, the Fighter of the Decade, outvoting Floyd Mayweather Jr. by about 2-1 to cement his standing as the world current pound-for-pound best.

Pacquiao, the only boxer in history to win seven world titles in different weight classes, is the only fifth fighter to win the prestigious award three times since the BWAA chose Jack Dempsey the first winner of the award in 1938.

The others who achieved the same feat before Pacquiao — who won the award in 2005, 2008 and 2009 — were heavyweights Muhammad Ali, Jose Frazier and Evander Holyfield and welterweight Sugar Ray Leonard.

Pacquiao (50-3 with 2 draws and 38 knockouts) capped off a remarkable decade by stopping welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in the final round on Nov. 14 for a record seventh title in different weight divisions.

Pacquiao will return to the ring in March 13 to defend his World Boxing Organization welter title against Joshua Clottey of Ghana at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Pacquiao said from Los Angeles, where he is training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, said he will accept his awards in person at the 85th boxing writers awards dinner on June 11 in New York City.

The Filipino icon was chosen fighter of the decade over Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera.

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, was honored with a record-setting fourth Trainer of the Year award (now renamed Eddie Futch Award).

Futch once trained Roach, who eventually became his assistant and has gone on to train the more than a dozen world champions.

Juan Manuel Marquez’s ninth-round knockout of Juan Diaz was picked as fight of the year, an award that was renamed this year for Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Ali won the plum in 1965, 1974 and shared it with Frazier in 1975. Frazier, Ali’s arch-nemesis in the ring won it first in 1969 and again in 1971.

Leonard — with whom Pacquiao is being compared with for winning titles at different weight categories while fighting the best — earned the award in 1976, 1979 and 1981.

And more recently, Evander Holyfield, who at 47 tries to remain active, was Fighter of the Year in 1990, 1996 and 1997.

Other legendary American fighters have won the coveted award twice: Floyd Patterson, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and George Foreman, who won it first in 1973 and again 21 years later to become the oldest fighter at 46 to have achieved the feat.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach scored a first of his own, becoming the only trainer to have been named Trainer of the Year four times.

Roach, a former lightweight fighter, first won his award in 2003 — and again in 2006, 2008 and 2009 — the same year his prized student Pacquiao won his own recognition from the American boxing writers’ fraternity.

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