Photos and report by Boxing Bob Newman

The second installment of the WBC Night Of Champions wrapped up tonight at the Cardiff International Arena with a gala awards banquet. Medallions and plaques were given to every champion on hand. The European Boxing Union headed by Bob Logist of Belgium awarded Frank Maloney as Promoter of the year and his charge Rendall Munroe as fighter of the year. Finally, several WBC awards were given out or being the best of the year in several categories:

Female fighter of the year: Ina Menzer
Knockout of the year: Toshiaki Nishioka TKO3 Jhonny Gonzalez
(honorable mention): Carl Froch TKO12 Jermain taylor
Fight of the Year: Giacobbe Fragomeni D12 Kzrysztof Wlodarczyk I
Fighters of the Year: Vitali Klitschko & Sergio Martinez

The trophies were gold plated casts of Mike Tyson’s fist.

WBC President Jose Sulaiman sent a moving video message to all the gathered participants from Mexico. Sulaiman is recovering for the past month from knee replacement surgery on his left knee and was unable to make the trip to Cardiff.

Earlier in the evening at the Hilton Hotel, WBC Super Featherweight champ Toshiaki Nishioka finally squared off face-to-face against his mandatory challenger Rendall Munroe. The two will meet for real in the ring on October 24, at Kokugikan Sumo Arena, Tokyo Japan. The European champion Munroe is (21-1, 9 KOs), is on an eleven fight win streak, while Nishioka will be making the fifth defense of the WBC belt, with all four previously coming by stoppage. Nishioka is (36-4-3, 23 KOs).