rewrite this title Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn, Fabio Wardley, Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma all winners at Boxing Board awards

Conor Benn’s first fight with Chris Eubank Jr won the Contest of the Year prize at the prestigious British Boxing Board of Control awards.

New WBO heavyweight world champion Fabio Wardley won the award for Boxer of the Year and rising heavyweight star Moses Itauma received the Boxing Writers Young Boxer of Year Award.

Benn won his rematch with Eubank Jr last year as well, but lost to him in April when they headlined the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time.

That first fight was a 12-round thriller, made all the more spectacular by the surprise appearance of Chris Eubank Sr, the great rival of Conor’s father Nigel Benn.

Benn has had tumultuous relations with the British Boxing Board of Control, which didn’t sanction him to box in the UK until his provisional suspension, for his 2022 anti-doping violation, was lifted.

This prize will have personal significance to him – his father was the Board’s 1995 Boxer of the Year. “You never know you have it in you until you have to prove it, so for me to be able to prove it as a silver spoon kid. More importantly we delivered what we said we were going to deliver,” he said. “I’m glad everybody enjoyed it.

“I’m glad we did what we said we were going to do. It took a part of our souls that fight, we gave everything we had. I’m glad you guys were entertained. Ultimately it’s the entertainment business.

“Hopefully there’s plenty more nights like that. We’re just getting started.

“Winning a world title will top that night and what that night meant for me to deliver.”

He added: “Ultimately it was a fight that will live with me forever. It took two to tango and Chris brought it out of me.

“We’re not friends, he gave me one hell of a fight and only person could have brought that out of me.”

Fabio Wardley’s stellar year in 2025 saw him score a stunning late knockout to defeat Justis Huni at Portman Road in his Ipswich hometown.

He then came through a battle with Joseph Parker at the O2 Arena, eventually taking out the former world champion for another high level stoppage win. The WBO Interim title he won that night was upgraded to full world championship when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt.

Usyk was honoured at the ceremony. He won the Overseas Boxer of the Year award. In his only bout of 2025 Usyk knocked out Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight world champion.

Young Boxer of the Year Itauma was only kept in the ring for three rounds last year, so good was he in knocking out Mike Balogun and former world title challenger Dillian Whyte.

Former undisputed world champion, Britain’s first in the four-belt era, Josh Taylor, who retired last year after an unprecedented run of success, received a Special Recognition Award from the Board.

Three legendary editors of Boxing News, the iconic magazine that has been running since 1909, Claude Abrams, Tris Dixon and Matt Christie also received special awards.

The Boxing News Trainer of the Year prize went to Ben Davison, who coaches both Itauma and Wardley among others.

Dalton Smith, now the WBC super-lightweight world champion, won the Dennie Mancini Award for former or current Commonwealth champions.

Nigel Travis, who as well as coaching professional fighters runs a fantastic amateur boxing club for the community, and especially young people, in Moss Side, received the Services to Boxing Award.