The BWAA Is Proud To Announce ESPN's Mark Kriegel As The 49th Nat Fleischer Award Winner

The Boxing Writers Association of America would like to announce that ESPN.com boxing writer Mark Kriegel is the 49th recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism that was first presented by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 1972,

Kriegel wrote the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers, “Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich,” “Namath: A Biography” and “The Good Son: The Life of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.” He’s also the author of a novel, “Bless Me, Father,” which the Los Angeles Times called “mesmerizing.”

Kriegel, a five-time BWAA Bernie Writings Awards winner, is a writer and boxing analyst for ESPN. Previously, he was an Emmy Award-winning contributor for Showtime and the NFL Network. He’s been a columnist for The New York Daily News, the New York Post and a contributing writer for Esquire. As a general assignment reporter at the Daily News, he was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Esquire’s Charles Pierce has called him “the best writer on sports that we have.”

“I’m deeply honored,” Kriegel said. “Thanks to the BWAA. Thanks to the many great editors and teachers I’ve had, particularly the late Pete Hamill; to the guys who showed me how the job was done, referring specifically to the great and pugnacious talents of Wally Matthews and Mike Katz; and to those like Tom Hauser and John Schulian, who set the bar so high.

“Mostly, though, thanks to the fighters. Writing about boxing isn’t like writing about any other sport; the fighters, I think, tend to make us better writers than we actually are.”