Kovalev tops boxing's best of 2014

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about boxing in 2014 is that 2015 is right around the corner. And the elusive fight the world has begged to see for much of the last decade could be closer than ever to reality.

Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. Both welterweight champs say the time is now for the Fight of the (21st) Century. Never mind that Mayweather will be 38 and Pacquiao 36 if the fight happens in 2015. Or that neither is the fighter he was five years ago when Floyd-Manny fever was running at an all-time high.

Mayweather remains undefeated and the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and Pacquiao has rebounded from his devastating knockout against Juan Manuel Marquez to put himself back in the P4P conversation.

Every possible excuse to not fight has been exhausted. Both men realize the money is too good to pass up and their legacies will suffer without it. The biggest question remaining is which TV network will carry what will almost certainly be the most lucrative pay-per-view fight of all time. Mayweather says it has to be Showtime and Pacquiao fights on HBO. There's still much to hash out before this fight is made.

While 2014 was not the most memorable year on record, it had some great and some forgettable moments. A look at the best and worst of boxing in 2014.

Fighter of the year: Several candidates made a strong case for the year's best. Lightweight champ Terence Crawford put Omaha on the map with his stunning knockout of troubled Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa, sandwiched between unanimous decisions against Ricky Burns and Raymundo Beltran. Crawford showed HBO audiences he has morphed into one of the finest boxers in the world, and won an admirer in Warren Buffett, the Oracle (and richest human) of Omaha.

Middleweight knockout machine Gennady Golovkin, 2013's USA TODAY fighter of the year, extended his KO streak to 18 with stoppages against Osumanu Adama, Daniel Geale and Marco Antonio Rubio. Through no fault of his own, other than his amazing ring skills and powerful fists, GGG was unable to secure a fight against the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Miguel Cotto, or any other big names between 154 and 168 pounds.

But the year's best was a Russian light heavyweight who showed he could handle any opponent. Sergey Kovalev was expected to knock out undefeated foes Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello, and he did with relative ease. But he earned greater respect for completely dominating Bernard Hopkins, one of the smartest fighters of all time, in November in Atlantic City.

Under the tutelage of trainer John David Jackson, Kovalev executed a perfect game plan against "The Alien" and for that, earned USA TODAY Sports' Fighter of the year honors. "I couldn't overpower him," Hopkins said. "I felt like a middleweight in there with a cruiserweight. I couldn't get in the range, whether it was his height, his reach, and he was stepping back when I wanted to engage. And that's smart. I couldn't get inside to do what I wanted to do. He never got off his game. He's the real deal."

Fight of the year: There wasn't a lot to pick from in this category, but the 12-round 140-pound slugfest for a minor title at the StubHub Center in April between Argentine slugger Lucas Matthysse and John Molina had everything you could ask for: knockdowns of both fighters, comebacks, non-stop action and plenty of blood. Matthysse won by 11th-round KO, rising from two early knockdowns and a nasty cut over his left eye. But the bloodied Molina won much respect for his ability to stand up in the face of the constant stream of power punches from Matthysse.

Trainer of the year: With a fighter like Gennady Golovkin under his tutelage, it would be easy to pick Abel Sanchez, who has molded Golovkin into a great boxer as well as the wrecking machine he's best known for. But John David Jackson gets the honors this year for coming up with a superb game plan for Kovalev against future Hall of Famer Hopkins. Kovalev made the 49-year-old Hopkins look, well, old.

Promoter of the year: Main Events' boss Kathy Duva faces heavyweights every day, trying to compete with the likes of Golden Boy and Top Rank. But she has deftly taken her meal ticket Kovalev to the top of his weight class and molded him into one of the sport's most watchable commodities.

Knockout of the year: This one took place in front of 80,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium on May 31, when Carl Froch dropped George Groves with a powerful right hand to the head in the eighth round of their super middleweight title rematch. Groves looked like he might be out for a while, a la Pacquiao against Marquez.

Yet he quickly got to his feet, but referee Charlie Fitch stopped it, and "The Cobra" retained his titles. The only KO that compares also happened across the Atlantic, where Wladimir Klitschko flattened Kubrat Pulev in the fifth round in Germany in a November heavyweight title fight.

Best young talent: Puerto Rican rising star Felix Verdejo, 21, is almost universally touted as the best young fighter out there. The 2012 Olympian (16-0, 12 KOs), who lost in the third round in London to eventual gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine, went 7-0 in 2014, winning six by stoppage. For my money, though, give me Lomachenko. He is a master craftsman in the ring, and just four fights into his pro career, is already the WBO featherweight champion. Bravo.

Man of the year: Golden Boy founder and CEO Oscar De La Hoya, for his efforts to end boxing's cold war by apologizing to Top Rank's Bob Arum, his former promoter and longtime antagonist. De La Hoya, who lost his top executives because of it, said he just wanted to give the fans the best fights possible. And with Top Rank and GB at odds, that didn't happen.

Fighters we need to see more of in 2015: Andre Ward tops the list. "SOG" has been MIA in 2014, mostly because of his misguided struggle to break his contract with Goossen-Tutor Promotions, whose boss, Dan Goossen, tragically passed away in September. The undefeated Ward, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, has not fought since November 2013, and has nothing on the horizon. Ward (27-0, 14 KOs), who has fought twice in the last three years, turns 31 in February as the boxing world sadly watches his prime years slip away.

Two other undefeated fighters have also been nowhere to be seen lately, except at ringside of other fights. Former two-division champ Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs) last fought in January and has been in a contract dispute with Top Rank. Garcia, 27, trained by his brother Robert, one of the sport's best, has an exciting style and boxing needs to see this power puncher in the ring, not watching from ringside.

Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) will be 32 in June and fought once in 2014 (April unanimous decision victory against little-known fighter Lucas Konecny). He turned down a $1 million-plus payday to fight Matt Korobov and vacated his WBO middleweight title in September. Kid Chocolate is melting on the sidelines.

Fights we hope to see in 2015: Beyond Mayweather-Pacquiao, there's Cotto-Canelo Alvarez, Golovkin-Chavez Jr.; Golovkin-Cotto; Kovalev-Adonis Stevenson; Klitschko-Deontay Wilder.

Best year on TV: Like the fighters they put on display, HBO and Showtime went head-to-head, and by this judge's score, it's HBO by (Canelo's) decision. Neither network had much to brag about in '14. Showtime's best was the fight of the year between Matthysse and Molina on April 26. It was mostly downhill from there, with a couple of so-so pay-per-view Mayweather wins against Marcos Maidana, and a competitive matchup between Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara. However, Alvarez later defected to HBO, signing a multifight deal. "We're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Canelo and his team," said HBO Sports President Ken Hershman. "We think he's going to be the lead dog in boxing for a long time to come."

HBO has perhaps the three most exciting fighters alive in Golovkin, Kovalev and Pacquiao. And now it has Alvarez, along with Cotto and Crawford. Showtime has Mayweather for two more fights (it needs Mayweather-Pacquiao badly), Amir Khan, definitely one of my favorites to watch, power puncher Keith Thurman, and heavyweight knockout artist Deontay Wilder, along with Adrien Broner and Danny Garcia.

Showtime's 2015 bell rings on Jan. 17 with Wilder-Bermane Stiverne in a heavyweight showdown for Stiverne's title. HBO kicks off with the rubber match between Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios on Jan. 24, then Golovkin and Kovalev in successive months.

Worst decision: Timothy Bradley has been on both sides of horrible judging (see Bradley-Pacquiao, June 2012). This time, he was on the short end. His fight against Diego Chaves earlier this month seemed to be an easy decision for Bradley. But reputable judge Julie Lederman scored it 116-112 for Chaves, which seemed incomprehensible to the media ringside, including her father, HBO's Harold Lederman, who scored it 116-112 for Bradley. The fight ended in a draw. Bradley's promoter, Arum, was incensed, saying Lederman should not be allowed to judge in Las Vegas again.

Best quotes: "I don't even know who he is." — Floyd Mayweather, when asked what he thought about Ronda Rousey, who UFC President Dana White said would kick Mayweather's butt.

"This one is for the glory. Next time we're fighting for the money." – Kathy Duva, after Kovalev defeated Hopkins in November.

Worst power broker: For his boxers, Al Haymon is a godsend. The sport's most powerful manager, who came to boxing from the music industry, gets his rapidly growing stable of fighters the most money for the least risk (See: Mayweather). But that leads to bad matchups and mismatches. And there were too many in 2014. The poster boy for that is WBC light heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson, who signed with Haymon in February. Stevenson rejected fights against Bernard Hopkins to unify the titles, Kovalev to match up the two best fighters in the division, and Jean Pascal. Instead, Superman fought Andrzej Fonfara and Dmitry Sukhotsky. At 37, Stevenson's best days are waning.

Best idea: WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman says he wants to see a tournament of champions, where the alphabet belt holders in each weight division fight each other in a tournament for the right to be called World Champion. Good luck getting this idea by those who control the fighters.

2014 passings: Rest in peace: Goossen (promoter, age 64); Ernie Terrell (heavyweight champion, 75); Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (middleweight, 76); Matthew Saad Muhammad (light-heavyweight champ, 59); Jimmy Ellis (heavyweight champ, 74); and Jose Sulaiman (WBC President, 82).