- What a year it was for Rwanda’s Patrick Kinigamazi, simply the very best of his 11-year career by far. The Switzerland-based 34-year-old sported an excellent record this time 12 months ago (25-2), but aside from Swiss and ABU titles at lightweight, the rewards for years in the ring were meager.

Along came 2017. Patrick first traveled to France in February for a narrow, but deserved points win over 8 rounds against decent home fighter Ruben Gouveia (10-2-1). A nice upset surely, but it got much better.

In June “King Kini” picked up the WBF World Super Featherweight title, thrashing Juan José Farias of Argentina for a lopsided decision, then rounded off his big year by stopping Hungarian Robert Laki (14-1-1) in just five rounds.

Without question, Kinigamazi finally arrived and now the WBF world champion also has the Fighter of the Year award as confirmation for his outstanding success in twenty-seventeen.

- 2016 ended very nicely indeed for Segolene Lefebvre from Douai in France: She was 6-0, had won the French Super Featherweight title, closed out the year by winning the WBF Intercontinental Super Bantamweight belt and the cherry on the cream came in the form of the WBF Female Newcomer of the Year award.

Can it get better? It sure did – as we predicted here a year ago. Rising to the expectations, Segolene had a smashing 2017.

In March, she crowned herself WBF World Super Bantamweight Champion via a 9th-round stoppage of Brazil’s Simone Da Silva Duarte and in November she defended for the first time in a true classic with Mexico’s Naroyuki Koasicha.

That typical boxer vs. puncher match-up was so close that the winner was found in the ultimate round only. Lefebvre got the nod and both amazon warriors got a standing ovation from the audience, such was the quality of their performances.

In between those two outstanding ring appearances, our Female Fighter of the Year scored yet another win, albeit “just” a routine 6-round decision, over Sara Marjanovic in a marking time fight last May.

So while “Sego” Lefebvre had a very good 2016, she easily topped it by having a great 2017 to deservedly clinch her award.

- Nisse, from the Sauerland promotional family dynasty founded by his father and Hall-of-Famer Wilfried in the early 80ies, is yet another boxing powerhouse promoter to associate with the World Boxing Federation.

In what thus was his initial year with the WBF, Nisse Sauerland staged two important championships during 2017.

In March, he featured the vacant WBF world heavyweight title on a show in Denmark and in July in Germany the third WBF Womens world lightweight title defense of undefeated Nicole Wesner.

Not a bad start, and you bet we do hope it was a start. In any case, Sauerland made enough of an impact in the past year to warrant being the WBF Promoter of the Year for 2017.

- Granted, it’s easy to be honored as Trainer of the Year, when the boxer he handles is the Fighter of the Year and reigns as WBF world champion. But that’s not the point why Swiss coach Giorgio Costantino, who handles the training of Patrick Kinigamazi, is this year’s choice among many.

Consider this: Prior to Kinigamazi being crowned WBF superfeatherweight champion of the world, his record stood at 26-2 with only four of his wins coming inside the distance. In fact, it was almost five years (!) since an opponent of his failed to hear the final bell.

It’s not clear what exactly Costantino did, but suddenly with the WBF title on the line for his charge, the story-line of his often boring fights changed dramatically.

Argentina’s Juan José Farias kissed the canvas five times in 12 rounds, losing a lopsided decision, and when Kinigamazi defended in November, Hungarian Robert Laki also went down five times in less than five rounds.

That’s a staggering 10 knockdowns in 17 rounds! So until the world has figured out how Giorgio Costantino turned a feather fist into a jojo sensation, he’s certainly worth being WBF Trainer of the Year.