Report/Photos: Boxing Bob Newman

As always, the awards banquet is the highlight of every convention, especially the NABF. This year was no exception as the delicious dinner, several awards, along with raffle prizes and one very special recognition exceeded the expectations of everyone.

The special award came at the outset of the evening surprising almost everyone on hand. Since WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman could not attend due to the passing of his mother last week, he designated Duane Ford and the NABF to bestow an honorary WBC championship belt to a legendary fighter from the ’70s and ’80s who challenged for a world title five times, falling just short each time: Alvaro “Yaqui” Lopez. Challenging for the light heavyweight title four times and the cruiserweight title once, Lopez took on the best in two divisions over a twelve year, 76 fight career. His 1980 WBC light heavyweight title challenge of Matthew Saad Muhammad won both round of the year and fight of the year.

The awards and recipients were as follows:

Javier & Blanca Camacho- Loyalty Award
Eye of the Tiger- Promoter of the Year
Camille Estephan- Loyalty Award
Cleto Reyes Boxing- Appreciation Award
Craig Metcalfe- Loyalty Award
Arizona- Commission of the Year Award
Rex Walker- Leadership Award
Danny Vella- Executive Officer of the Year
Jose Manzur- Lifetime Achievement
Alan Krebs- Loyalty Award
Frank Garza- Lifetime Achievement
David Sutherland, Tommy Ashy, Nobu Ikushima- Barnacle Award

President Duane Ford gave an emotional speech, his last convention address as president, thanking everyone from the board, to the ring officials to everyone in attendance for helping him in his role as NABF president. Referee Laurence Cole praised Ford for his leadership over the years and referee David Sutherland led the entire throng of delegates in raising a glass and in a toast and a standing and well deserved ovation to Ford.