Prestigious international accolade for boxing trainer Colin Nathan
Another feather in the cap for SA's and probably Africa’s most successful boxing trainer of this era, Colin Nathan.
Known as “Nomakanjani”, the man who has produced seven world champions, three legit world holders, has been nominated by the legendary Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) to contest the trainer of the year award.
BWAA recently released nominees for most of the categories for this year’s annual awards. Nathan is listed in the top 5 in the trainer’s category which is known as the Eddie Futch Award. That late outstanding American mentor honed the skills of many boxers who later became world champions and that includes Joe “Smokin Joe” Frazier, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Trevor Berbick and Ridick "Big Daddy” Bowe.
The Hall of Fame inductee died at the age of 90 in 2001. Other nominees for his award are Bill Haney (trains Devin Haney), Derrick James (trains Errol Spence Jr), Gennady Mashyanov (trains Dmitry Bivol) and Bob Santos (trains Hector Luis Garcia). Haney is the current undisputed lightweight champion who holds the WBC, WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and Ring lightweight titles. Spence is the IBF, WBC and the WBA (Super) junior welterweight champion.
Bivol is the WBA Super light heavyweight champion who defeated Mexican idol Saul Canelo Alvarez for that title on May 27. Garcia is the WBA Super featherweight champion.
Winners in all categories will be announced on January 10. It is the first time ever in the history of SA boxing, and Africa to be precise, that a trainer or a licensee has been nominated by that association since it was established way back in 1926.
Nathan – who has produced 7 legitimate world champions in a career that spans a decade – deserves it. South Africa right now has one legitimate world boxing champion – IBF junior flyweight Sivenathi "The Special One” Nontshinga. He is under Nathan’s tutelage but the 21-year-old boxer’s father Thembani Gopheni is also part of the team.
Nontshinga achieved that feat thousands if not millions of kilometres away from home in East London – defeating Mexican Hector Flores on his home ground on September 3. That fight has been nominated for the Muhammed Ali/Joe Frazier fight of the year award.
“I was shocked,” said Nathan. “That is because that is an incredible achievement for me through the hard work I have done over the years.”
Mere nomination is victory for BSA’s 2017 and 2018 trainer of the year award winner, lifting the actual award in January will be a cherry on top.
“This is the biggest ever recognition that I have ever received; the BWWA informed me about my nomination yesterday and I just could not believe it,” said Nathan who has travelled around the world with fighters. “I am very proud of my team; as I said I am only getting started; there is more fire – come 2023.”
Nathan is one trainer in the country who has spent his money going outside these shores to learn from the best and the results talk volumes. He’s been to Freddie Roach – the former professional American boxer – who is widely regarded as one of the best boxing trainers of all time.
Roach trained many great world champions – four-division world champion Miguel Cotto, former WBC middleweight champion Julio César Chávez Jr., three-time world champion James "Lights Out” Toney and former light welterweight champion Amir Khan. He did wonders with Manny Pacquiao – the Filipino – who is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time
Pacquiao is the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing and has won 12 major world titles. He was the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes, the first boxer to win major world titles in four of the eight "glamour" divisions and is the only boxer to hold world championships across four decades