The Ring was established in 1922. Since 1928, it has named a fighter as Fighter of the Year, based on the magazine's writers' criteria. This award is a gold and silver medal given to the boxer, who, during the year previous, has by his conduct and fighting qualities "earned the esteem of the sports public." The four points which originally governed the award were:
- He must be foremost in his contribution to the skill and the science of boxing and he need not be a champion.
- The recipient must combine with his high place in the ranking of fighters a similar position as a sportsman.
- He must associate with the abilities as a fighter good public relations and a reputation for clean and moral living.
- The boxer receiving the award must be recognized as an example to the growing youth.
Here is a list of Ring Magazine's Fighters of the Year:
Famous quotes containing the words ring, magazine, fighters and/or year:
“Roll unmanly over this turning tuft,
O ring of seas, nor sorrow as I shift
From all my mortal lovers with a starboard smile....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Alas! While your ambitious vanity is unceasingly laboring to cover the earth with statues, with monuments, and with inscriptions to eternalize, if possible, your names, and give yourselves an existence, when this body is no more, why must we be condemned to live and die unknown?”
—Thomas Paine 1737–1809, U.S. writer and magazine editor. Pennsylvania Magazine, pp. 362-4 (1775)
“O can’t you see, brother—
Death’s a congested road for fighters now,
and hero a cheap label.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“The higher the mountain on which you stand, the less change in the prospect from year to year, from age to age. Above a certain height there is no change.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)