IRELAND’S ANDY LEE has been named in the six-person shortlist for Ring Magazine’s Trainer of the Year award for 2024, with Katie Taylor nominated for Female Fighter of the Year and Stevie McKenna included among the contenders for Round of the Year.

Former middleweight world champion Lee has masterminded the career resurrection of Kiwi heavyweight Joseph Parker, who followed up his December 2023 victory over Deontay Wilder with another huge win over fellow contender Zhilei Zhang in March.

Parker, 33, will face recent Anthony Joshua conqueror Daniel Dubois in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 22 February. Victory over ‘Dynamite’ Dubois would see Lee’s man crowned a two-time heavyweight world champion following Parker’s previous spell as the WBO beltholder between 2017 and 2018.

Just over a week later, Lee will be in Belfast to corner his welterweight prodigy Paddy Donovan, who takes on domestic rival Lewis Crocker in a world-title eliminator at the SSE Arena.

In 2024, Lee guided Donovan to stoppage victories over Williams Andres Herrera and Lewis Crocker as the 25-year-old Limerick man improved his record to 14-0 with 11 stoppage wins.

Lee described it as an “honour” to be nominated for a Ring Magazine award which, along with its Boxing Writers Association of America equivalent, is the highest recognition for a coach in the sport.

Lee, a 2004 Olympian for Ireland, is shortlisted alongside Robert Garcia, Marc Ramsay, Don Charles, Bob Santos and Rudy Hernandez.

Katie Taylor, who is a multiple-time winner of the Ring’s Female Fighter of the Year award, is nominated again for 2024 despite fighting only once in the last calendar year.

The Bray woman, who still holds the undisputed light-welterweight title following her sensational rematch victory over Amanda Serrano at Cowboys Stadium in November, is joined on the shortlist by her beaten foe.

Nominated alongside Taylor and Serrano are Americans Claressa Shields, Mikaela Mayer, Siniesa Estrada, and Gabriela Fundora.

Monaghan’s Stevie McKenna is shortlisted for Round of the Year, with the opening minutes of his barnburner with England’s Joe Laws back in August recognised for their sheer insanity.

McKenna and Laws dropped each other in the electrifying first round of a bout that was eventually won by McKenna, who recovered to overwhelm Laws and chop him adown in the third.

Smithborough’s ‘Hitman’ recently suffered his first career defeat, however, as he was forced to contend with the canvas again in a majority-decision reversal against Lee Cutler.

McKenna’s first round with Laws is nominated alongside a couple of heavyweight classics: the ninth round of Oleksandr Usyk’s original bout with Tyson Fury in which the Ukrainian almost stopped the reigning champion, and the exhilarating fifth-round back-and-forth between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua which saw Dubois halt Joshua’s courageous comeback with a chilling knockout finish.

Irish boxing manager Brian Peters also has a fighter nominated in McKenna’s category in the shape of Ray Ford, whose final round against Otabek Kholmatov — in which Ford came from behind to stop the Uzbek and capture world honours at featherweight — is also shortlisted.

While Ring Magazine’s website is currently being redeveloped, the full list of awards nominees are available on their social media channels.

The winners are due to be announced this coming Saturday, 11 January.