NEW YORK (Kyodo) — Naoya Inoue savored the moment Thursday after the undisputed world super bantamweight champion became the first Japanese winner of the Sugar Ray Robinson Award as the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Fighter of the Year for 2023.

The 31-year-old was recognized at an awards dinner in New York for beating American Stephen Fulton and Filipino Marlon Tapales and becoming just the second man to unify all four major belts in two different weight classes.

Inoue received applause from the roughly 300 people in attendance as he was presented with a memorial shield.

“I’m honored to be here to accept this award tonight,” he said in English, before continuing in Japanese.

“The year 2023 was one with the biggest challenge for me. Neither bout was easy but I managed to get the win in the end. I’m really happy those results have been rated highly by everyone, I hope you’ll keep looking forward to my future career.”

Inoue, who previously conquered the bantamweight division, defended his current four belts on May 6 against Luis Nery of Mexico with another knockout, extending his perfect career record to 27-0 with 24 of the wins coming by KO.

Inoue currently sits second in the prestigious Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings, behind only undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine.

“The atmosphere was great and coming over to New York was worthwhile,” said Inoue, who obliged requests to sign autographs and pose for photos at the venue. “I felt I’d been eagerly anticipated.”