WBF bantamweight champion Bukiwe "Anaconda" Nonina made SA boxing history on Friday night when she defended her boxer of the year award after a record five defences of the SA title.

Nonina won the same award in Durban last January.

But this year, she took honours at the Boardwalk Casino in Port Elizabeth, where Boxing SA and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro hosted the country's premier boxing awards.

They are the first to take place in the Eastern Cape since the new SA Boxing Act of 2001 - which is known as Boxing SA - came into effect that year.

The period under review for award eligibility began on October 1 2016 and extended to October 31 last year.

Nonina is the first boxing champion from Idutywa and remains the only female boxer in South Africa to have made the record five defences of the SA title since female boxing was permitted in South Africa in 2006. But Idutywa's loss is Giyani's gain because Nonina is based there now and trains under Immanuel Mutavhatsindi.

In the male section, current WBO bantamweight champion Zolani "Last Born" Tete won the double - the boxer of the year as well as the special achievement award.

Tete's stunning KO in Belfast - the quickest ever in the history of world title defences - qualifies for the 2018 awards.

Other recipients of the special achievement award - which is decided by Boxing SA chairman Peter Ngatane - are boxing fan Joy Greyvenstein and independent photographer Nick Lourens.

The last SA boxer to win the WBO strap was Corrie "The Sniper" Sanders in 2003.