Ranking the Most Likely Candidates for the 2014 Fighter of the Year
The chase for 2014's Fighter of the Year status has turned into a one-horse race at this point. WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford had a breakout year, winning his first title and turning in some of the year's most impressive boxing performances.
For the year, Crawford was 3-0, with a knockout. All of his opponents were near the top of the division.
But there have been other campaigns worthy of mention. Gennady Golovkin was his usual, dominant self. Three-division champion Roman Gonzalez moved onto any credible pound-for-pound, top-10 list.
Nicholas Walters shot to the top of the extremely hot featherweight division and Naoya Inoue emerged in Japan as a phenom in only his sixth professional fight.
8. Naoya Inoue
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Naoya Inoue still has work left to do in order to deserve true short-list status for Fighter of the Year. But if he can manage to beat longtime WBO super flyweight champion Omar Narvaez on December 30, he's got to be seen as a finalist.
The 21-year-old sensation from Japan started his 2014 campaign with a bang when he stopped WBC light flyweight champion Adrian Hernandez in six rounds last April. It was Inoue's sixth professional fight.
In September, Inoue defended the belt against Samartlek Kokietgym, stopping him in 11.
A native of Argentina, Narvaez has held his title since 2010. His only career loss came in 2011, when he went up to bantamweight to challenge Nonito Donaire.
If Inoue can skip a weight class and win a second world title in less than a year, it will at least serve notice that a remarkable new phenom has emerged in the Asian boxing scene.
7. Gennady Golovkin
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Gennady Golovkin has become a yearly fixture on these kind of lists. If he can ever get another major star to step into the ring with him, he might have the opportunity to take top honors.
As it is, he was great again in 2014. Fans might wish he could face better opponents, but the way he once again steamrolled the ones he faced was remarkable.
In February, he stopped former world-title challenger Osumanu Adama in seven. In July, he walked through former world champion Daniel Geale, stopping him in three.
In October, GGG made his West Coast debut, facing the rugged veteran, Marco Antonio Rubio. Rubio lasted 12 rounds with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., a potential future opponent for Golovkin.
Against Golovkin, Rubio was knocked out in two.
6. Saul Alvarez
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Saul Alvarez's split-decision win over Erislandy Lara might not have been a crowd-pleasing affair, but Canelo really can't take the blame for that. He pressed the action againgst the elusive Lara and had surprising success landing to the Cuban star's body.
Lara was the other top fighter at light middleweight, so by fighting him, Alvarez was making the most meaningful bout available to him without moving up to middleweight. It was a dangerous fight and one that the rising superstar could have avoided if he wanted to.
Alvarez showed improved skill in grinding out a close win. His other win in 2014 was a Round 10 stoppage of Alfredo Angulo.
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5. Miguel Cotto
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Two years ago, it looked like Miguel Cotto might be nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career. Following a loss to Floyd Mayweather, Cotto lost by one-sided decision to Austin Trout.
If you had told me at the end of 2012 that Miguel Cotto would end 2014 as the lineal middleweight champion, I'd have told you to get a reality check.
I still maintain that Cotto's victory over Sergio Martinez last June says more about Martinez's decline than it does about Cotto's resurgence. Martinez was a 39-year-old fighter who has had multiple surgeries in the past two years. He was lucky to beat Martin Murray in April 2013.
But a lot of boxing pundits were still holding up Martinez as a pound-for-pound, top-10 fighter. He was a bigger, more athletic fighter than Cotto. But Cotto came out prepared, with a perfect game plan.
The win made Cotto the first four-division world champion ever from boxing-rich Puerto Rico.
One of the most popular stars of this generation sent his stock back through the roof. It might be the best boxing story of the year.
4. Nicholas Walters
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Nicholas Walters was already on the radar for a lot of boxing fans headed into 2014. The undefeated "Axe Man" was the "regular" WBA featherweight champion.
The WBA's insistence on issuing "regular" world championships, alongside "super" world championships, is a joke. Boxing writers and fans should mock them for it every chance we get. It's not a legitimate world title and shouldn't be remotely treated like one.
Still, they don't just hand them out. A boxer has to be talented to earn one of these dubious trinkets.
Walters hammered home how talented he was in 2014. In April, he knocked out multi-division world champion Vic Darchinyan in five rounds.
In October, Walters may very well have closed the door on former pound-for-pound star Nonito Donaire's time as a headline attraction. Walters battered the WBA "super" world champion and stopped him in six rounds.
The win made Walters a legitimate world champion and puts him at the top of a very hot weight class.
3. Sergey Kovalev
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Sergey Kovalev ends 2014 as one of the hottest fighters in the sport. The dangerous Russian has also unified three of four light heavyweight belts, with lineal champion Adonis Stevenson widely perceived as ducking him.
Kovalev's first two wins of the year were stoppages of undefeated fighters. Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello had a combined record of 45-0-1 when Kovalev knocked them out.
In one of the year's biggest fights, Kovalev unified his WBO belt with the WBA and IBF straps when he cruised to a shutout, unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins in October.
Kovalev showed that he is far more than simply a puncher. Against an all-time great technician, Kovalev stayed patient and fought a measured, intelligent fight, dictating the pace throughout.
2. Roman Gonzalez
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Roman Gonzalez finally began to get the kind of respect he deserves in 2014. The explosive Nicaraguan's name has begun to appear on almost every pound-for-pound, top-10 list.
He also has a great case for being the Fighter of the Year. In 2014, Gonzalez went 4-0, with four stoppages. In September, he became a three-division world champion, when he lifted the lineal and WBC flyweight title off from Akira Yaegashi by TKO.
Gonzalez returned to action just two-and-a-half months later, stopping tough, veteran contender Rocky Fuentes. That win listed Gonzalez to 41-0 with 35 KOs.
Gonzalez has developed a strong following with fans in Japan. It's time more North Americans caught on. He's one of the most exciting fighters on the planet, regardless of his small frame.
1. Terence Crawford
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Ultimately, for me this list comes down to Terence Crawford and everybody else. Crawford had career-defining wins against top-level opponents, moving himself quickly from the status of rising prospect to emerging superstar.
Crawford started the year in March, when he travelled to Scotland and took the WBO lightweight title from experienced, two-division champion, Ricky Burns, in front of Burns' own home crowd. Going on the road that way is a risky move for a developing fighter, but Crawford made things look easy.
In June, he defended the belt in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, against former world champion and Cuban amateur standout Yuriorkis Gamboa. Gamboa is a highly experienced boxer with exceptional physical tools.
Gamboa gave Crawford four very tough rounds early on, before the champion adjusted completely and took over the fight, winning by stoppage in Round 9.
Crawford finished the year by returning to Omaha on Thanksgiving weekend to defend against Raymundo Beltran. Beltran is a former sparring partner of Manny Pacquiao. He is exactly the kind of tough, hard-knocks veteran that can bring a rising young star crashing to earth.
But Crawford took care of his business, shutting Beltran out. Crawford came into this year as a fighter who serious fans were starting to take an interest in. He'll enter 2015 as one of the hottest names in the sport.
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