Munroe lost a unanimous points call to Nishioka despite a brave display

Rendall Munroe's trainer Mike Shinfield says the Leicester man thoroughly deserves to be named the British Boxing Board of Control's Boxer of the Year.

Super-bantamweight Munroe edged out a host of world-class fighters including David Haye, Carl Froch and Amir Khan to pick up the award in London on Monday.

Shinfield told BBC Radio Leicester: "Rendall beat them all and that takes a bit of doing. He's world-class."

Munroe lost his world title fight to Toshiaki Nishioka on points in October.

But his performance in losing a thrilling and closely-fought contest against the Japanese fighter earned him a great deal of respect.

"The result was disappointing but Rendall came out of it with a lot of credit," Shinfield added.

Munroe, who has been nominated for the BBBC Boxer of the Year award on three previous occasions, beat Simone Maludrottu to regain the European title in November last year before setting up his world title fight by beating Victor Terrazas in a WBC world title final eliminator in April.

But after the disappointment of defeat in Japan, Munroe who had to relinquish his European and Commonwealth titles when he fought for the world title, is already focusing on his next fight.

The 30-year-old, who trains out of Derby, returns to the gym at the start of next week and Shinfield says his man has a number of options for his next bout - which could be as early as February.

"The board have ordered that British champion Jason Booth defends his title against Rendall - so that's one option," Shinfield added.

"Rendall is also up as the number one challenger for the Commonwealth title and is the mandatory challenge the European title.

"They are all under discussion but nothing is concrete at the moment."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version