Breaking Down Manny Pacquiao's Chances to Win 2014 Fighter of the Year

Manny Pacquiao surged back to the top of the sport in 2014, but did the popular icon do enough to garner serious consideration for Fighter of the Year honors?

Pacquiao scored two impressive wins in 2014. First, he emphatically overwhelmed top-five pound-for-pounder Timothy Bradley in April. The bout was a rematch of Bradley's hotly disputed (and, frankly, downright ridiculous) split-decision win over Pacquiao in June 2012.

Next, Pac-Man dismantled 140-pound titlist Chris Algieri over 12 rounds at welterweight. Pacquiao blasted Algieri to the canvas six times and won virtually every minute of every round.

Both wins came over previously undefeated fighters coming off the biggest and most important wins of their careers.

Before facing Pacquiao in this year's rematch, Bradley defeated Juan Manuel Marquez by split decision in October 2013. Unlike the split decision Bradley was given over Pacquiao, this win was legitimate and correctly awarded to him by the three judges at ringside.

Bradley looked sharp against Marquez. He consistently beat him to the punch and kept the deft counterpuncher from landing anything hard in return.

But Pacquiao was too much for Bradley. His hand speed and power kept Bradley from throwing anything but one shot at a time, and Pacquiao kept the pressure on him from start to finish.

Algieri came into his fight with Pacquiao believing he was destined for bigger and better things. He was a huge underdog to hard-nosed slugger Ruslan Provodnikov in June but got off the canvas twice in the first round to make a tremendous comeback.

It was a close fight, but Algieri got the nod over Provodnikov in his home state of New York. He used his long reach and fast legs to box circles around Provodnikov in the latter rounds, and he didn't let his almost-closed eye keep him from being deterred.

But Algieri was no match for Pacquiao. The bout was essentially over as soon as it began. Pacquiao was faster, stronger and more experienced, and he knew how to cut the ring off to track Algieri down whenever and however he wanted.

Kin Cheung/Associated Press/Associated Press

Pacquiao went 2-0 in 2014. His win over Bradley was probably the best win of the year by any fighter, and his domination of Algieri was such that it made people recall the vintage days of Pacquiao's welterweight greatness from 2008-2010.

But Pacquiao will have stiff competition for Fighter of the Year.  

Light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev enjoyed a banner year. The oft-avoided mauler defeated Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello to earn a unification bout against Bernard Hopkins earlier this month.

Kovalev responded to the biggest stage of his boxing life by outclassing Hopkins the way no one had ever done before. He now holds all alphabet titles at 175 except the WBC trinket Adonis Stevenson wears and is the clear best light heavyweight in the world.

Junior welterweight Terence Crawford might have the three best wins of 2014 in total by the end of the year's action anyway. Crawford traveled across the pond in March to take a decision win over Ricky Burns in Scotland, and he knocked out Yuriorkis Gamboa in Round 9 of a Fight of the Year candidate in June.

John Peterson/Associated Press

Crawford faces tough veteran Ray Beltran on November 29 to round out his impressive campaign. A win there could put him into the pole position among some knowledgeable boxing folk.

A dark-horse candidate might be popular junior middleweight Canelo Alvarez, who knocked out Alfredo Angulo in March and slipped past Erislandy Lara by split decision in July.

Middleweight Gennady Golovkin made his case for the honor as well, with three highlight-reel knockouts this year over Osumanu Adama, Daniel Geale and Marco Antonio Rubio.

Finally, Roman Gonzalez put flyweights back on the map in 2014. He was 4-0 with four knockouts, and he became the Transnational Rankings and The Ring Magazine champion by stopping Akira Yaegashi in September.

Eric Jamison/Associated Press

Make no mistake: Whoever wins Fighter of the Year in 2014 will have earned it, and Pacquiao's chances of coming out on top of the field are as good as any.

His wins over Bradley and Algieri are outstanding, and his chances should only be bolstered by his status as one of the most popular fighters in the sport.

Pac-Man deserves serious consideration for Fighter of the Year.

Kelsey McCarson is a boxing writer for Bleacher Report and The Sweet Science.

In December, he's sparring undefeated junior middleweight Jermell Charlo in an effort to raise money for Corbin Glasscock, a six-year-old from Tyler, Texas, recently diagnosed with bone cancer. You can help Kelsey help Corbin by contributing to Corbin's medical fund: www.GoFundMe.com/TeamCorbin.