2014 Fighter of the Year: Naoya "Monster" Inoue

Pacquiao has about 28% of the vote. Gonzalez 3%. :wall

 

Pac's year and May's were actually very close. (Pac's was better, though not by THAT much... the gulf between he and the guys ahead of him - Inoue, Crawford, Gonzalez, Kovalev, and technically even Ruenroeng - is much bigger)

 

Hopkins is greater than Narváez but if you want to use manner of victory as criteria Inoue KO2 Narváez is way more impressive than Kovalev outpointing Hopkins (even as impressive as that is)

 

Thing is, no offense, but among the majority of serious, non-biased fans known to be diehard followers of the entire sport ('from the feet up', that is, every division, straw through heavy) there was a very clear standout in 2014 and his name is Naoya Inoue. Anybody suggesting another candidate or even that it could be construed as being a 'tight race', I have to question whether they indeed have any knowledge of the lighter weights and with that a semblance of appreciation for what Inoue did. With that knowledge I simply fail to see how anyone could think it was a tight race and not a runaway lock for Inoue.

a) Pacquiao deserves extra credit in particular for the rematch over "top p4p and slick Bradley, who has a style many doubters once assured us Manny would not be able to deal with and would be exposed by"- even though most felt Pacquiao already should have gotten the nod over him in a previous calendar year? :huh

b) Golovkin's manner of victory is being taken into account, I believe. At least, on my ledger. The quality of competition still just isn't enough, with that dominant manner of victory factored in, to place him in the upper echelon of 2014. His year was among the best dozen or so - maybe even ten - in the sport, but some others were just as dominant over better opponents. Notably Inoue, and, bringing us to your third shout...

c) Kovalev. You don't think manner of victory plays in with him virtually shutting out Bernard Hopkins? Yes, some felt that Father Time might catch up with the Alien, but Kovalev was expected to be the "puncher" in this match-up, not to outbox Hopkins and prove his superior in every aspect of the game. Hopkins was still beating titlists and ranked contenders at the weight as of the last couple of years heading in. In terms of quality of competition, even adjusted to factor in manner of victory, Kovalev schooling the old master blows away Golovkin's wins - all three of them, combined.

Do you just not follow the lighter weights or something? All three of your mentions had very good years but still less than Crawford's - let alone Ruenroeng's (on paper), Gonzalez's, or especially Inoue's.

 

Yes, seriously. Maidana was on a great run at welterweight, and clearly not the same guy under Garcia that once upon a time looked a clueless lummox against Devon Alexander. Knocking out JSK and Josesito and whipping Broner's tush proved the improving Maidana's current h2h worth. It was a good win to notch once, let alone twice (and running away with it the 2nd time). Not up there with finally snatching Bradley's zero, but it rates somewhere in between that and snatching Algieri's.


I did say that Pacquiao had a clearly better year than Mayweather. They're just closer to each other than Pacquiao is to, IMO, the real leaders in this race.