NICOLA ADAMS’ year began with a stutter, when she suffered a surprise upset loss to Stoyka Petrova at the Europeans. It had been many years since Adams left a major championship without a medal. But she put that behind her. She was already the first woman to win a boxing gold medal at an Olympics, she repeated the feat at the Commonwealth Games in August where similarly she won the first gold medal in the women’s boxing competition in Glasgow.

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Don’t miss the first issue in January for Boxing News’ choices for the best amateur boxers of 2014