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Imo the front-runners are Kovalev, Terrence Crawford, and Roman Gonzalez.

Kov has one-sided stoppages of Caparello and Agnew in addition to a 12 round drubbing of Hopkins. Crawford has a clear decision over Burns and a stoppage over Gamboa. At this point Kovalev has the edge in my view, but Crawford is fighting Beltran late this month and should he win he'll have the better rounded resume, even though Kov would arguably have the best win. Gonzalez has a one-sided stopapge over the lineal champ, two wins over low-level stay busy opponents, and likely a win over decent contender Rocky Fuentas.

Who are your contenders for FOTY? I may be missing some strong candidates.

Kovalev beat two nobodies and guy that'll be 50 in 6 or 7 weeks, he has no business in the fighter of the year conversation.

I don't see why the age is such a big deal given Hopkins' recent performances. He was arguably top 2 and definitely top 3 at the weight and had a good recent record.

How about naming your contenders?

Crusader, can you add a poll with 10 candidates ?

Sure. Let me know if I'm missing some strong candidates. I don't think some of the fighters in the poll have too strong of an argument, but I'm anticipating that others name them.

Anyone whose crowning achievement for the year does not include beating 50 year old men.

Forgot to add Roman Gonzalez to my front-runners.

Anyone whose crowning achievement for the year does not include beating 50 year old men.

I guess Braehmer > Kovalev by that logic.

crusader wrote:Imo the front-runners are Kovalev, Terrence Crawford, and Roman Gonzalez.

Kov has one-sided stoppages of Caparello and Agnew in addition to a 12 round drubbing of Hopkins. Crawford has a clear decision over Burns and a stoppage over Gamboa. At this point Kovalev has the edge in my view, but Crawford is fighting Beltran late this month and should he win he'll have the better rounded resume, even though Kov would arguably have the best win. Gonzalez has a one-sided stopapge over the lineal champ, two wins over low-level stay busy opponents, and likely a win over decent contender Rocky Fuentas.

Who are your contenders for FOTY? I may be missing some strong candidates.

Nicolas Waltes or Roman Gonzalez in my opinion. And you should definitely exclude Canelo from this list. Pacquiao and Cotto are much more deserving to be here.

Pac added (sorry to all those whose votes are being removed; revote please). My knowledge of the lowest classes isn't great so I'm probably missing some strong contenders from those divisions.

I think Kovalev given the fact that he has just completely dominated Hopkins. Had he won via one punch, perhaps not but i'd ask who in 2014 has beaten a better fighter than Bernard Hopkins?

I have always been wondering why more people are expressing their opinion than voting. It is so easy to click on a radio button ...

Ian1973 wrote:I think Kovalev given the fact that he has just completely dominated Hopkins. Had he won via one punch, perhaps not but i'd ask who in 2014 has beaten a better fighter than Bernard Hopkins?

Pacquiao dominated Bradley, who is definitely better than today's version of Hopkins. Plus beating Chris Algieri will be much more impressive than beating low-level contenders like Agnew and Capparello.

Good points there. Maybe I'm not giving Pac enough credit.

Got to be Kovalev. He just systematically schooled and beat up Hopkins, the exact reverse to how so many self proclaimed experts said it'd go.

Boxing Writer wrote:

Ian1973 wrote:I think Kovalev given the fact that he has just completely dominated Hopkins. Had he won via one punch, perhaps not but i'd ask who in 2014 has beaten a better fighter than Bernard Hopkins?

Pacquiao dominated Bradley, who is definitely better than today's version of Hopkins. Plus beating Chris Algieri will be much more impressive than beating low-level contenders like Agnew and Capparello.

Pac did not beat Bradley as dominantly as Kovalev beat Hopkins. Besides, Bradley is overrated. He should have at least another loss on his record. Algieri is WAY overrated because Provo was too dumb and lazy to not finish him.

Also, I think polls like this should be made at the end of the year, because if it's made right after impressive performance by one of the fighters from this list, he will get most of the votes in this day easily.

ikorolev wrote:

Boxing Writer wrote:

Ian1973 wrote:I think Kovalev given the fact that he has just completely dominated Hopkins. Had he won via one punch, perhaps not but i'd ask who in 2014 has beaten a better fighter than Bernard Hopkins?

Pacquiao dominated Bradley, who is definitely better than today's version of Hopkins. Plus beating Chris Algieri will be much more impressive than beating low-level contenders like Agnew and Capparello.

Pac did not beat Bradley as dominantly as Kovalev beat Hopkins. Besides, Bradley is overrated. He should have at least another loss on his record. Algieri is WAY overrated because Provo was too dumb and lazy to not finish him.

Algieary is probably overrated, but he is light years ahead of Agnew and Caparello. Beterbiev actually beat better fighter than this two in his sixth fight.

Boxing Writer wrote:Also, I think polls like this should be made at the end of the year, because if it's made right after impressive performance by one of the fighters from this list, he will get most of the votes in this day easily.

That's true, and there are also assumptions about results being made, but I'm still curious to see what people think. Perhaps when the year is closer to finished someone can make another thread.

fergusg wrote:

Blodhemn wrote:Got to be Kovalev. He just systematically schooled and beat up Hopkins, the exact reverse to how so many self proclaimed experts said it'd go.

To be honest... and I could be wrong here, but there are bound to be critics that would argue that Kovalev (the betting favourite and the significantly younger and stronger fighter) failed to stop a 50 year old man that didn't punch back, whilst the rest of the guys he beat this year were unheard of.

I genuinely believe that the hype surrounding Hopkins age attracted mainstream interest in his fight with Kovalev.

Lol... nah. If you try to stop Hopkins, he'll make you miss and counter. The way to beat Hopkins is to box, like Kovalev smartly chose to do. Outwitted the experienced.

Who cares about ESPN and Ring ? They also have Cotto as #1 at MW

Oh yeah, the Ring... do they still have Broner listed #6 P4P?

fergusg wrote:

Blodhemn wrote:Got to be Kovalev. He just systematically schooled and beat up Hopkins, the exact reverse to how so many self proclaimed experts said it'd go.

To be honest... and I could be wrong here, but there are bound to be critics that would argue that Kovalev (the betting favourite and the significantly younger and stronger fighter) failed to stop a 50 year old man that didn't punch back, whilst the rest of the guys he beat this year were unheard of.

I genuinely believe that the hype surrounding Hopkins age attracted mainstream interest in his fight with Kovalev.

I think it was impressive performance from Kovalev. He tried to KO Hopkins badly in the last minute of the fight but failed - so what? Of course, Hopkins is far past his prime, his workrate is very poor now, his timing isn't one it was even 5-6 years ago, but he is extremely smart, has great defense and great chin. I hardly doubt there are fighters that could stop even today's version of Hopkins in LHW, SMW and MW. Probably even CW. Great win for Sergey. As for the rest of the guys that Kovalev beat this year I agree though - opposition was poor

fergusg wrote:

Blodhemn wrote:Got to be Kovalev. He just systematically schooled and beat up Hopkins, the exact reverse to how so many self proclaimed experts said it'd go.

To be honest... and I could be wrong here, but there are bound to be critics that would argue that Kovalev (the betting favourite and the significantly younger and stronger fighter) failed to stop a 50 year old man that didn't punch back, whilst the rest of the guys he beat this year were unheard of.

I genuinely believe that the hype surrounding Hopkins age attracted mainstream interest in his fight with Kovalev.

The poll on here pre fight suggested more people thought Hopkins would win than Kovalev. It is easy to be verbally dominant after the event but true judges tend to be vindicated as they call it right BEFORE the event.

To be fair I can understand the Pacquiao vote(s). I'm still not certain on Bradley though, I think subsequent events will underline how good he is / isn't.

I'm of the opinion that there is more to come from bradley, I believe he boxes within himself at times. if he really puts it all together I think the can beat anyone at his weight.

IMO, it is very biasing to create such a poll less than a day after Kovalev beats Hopkins. Not very legit. Having said that, I can see strong FOTY arguments for Crawford, Walters, Kovalev, and Pacquiao.