With several boxers deserving of being in consideration for Fighter of the Year, the one they call “Krusher” showed he was a force to be reckoned with with a string of increasingly impressive victories.
Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) fought three times in 2014 and won by knockout in two of those bouts, but it was the one he went the distance in that garnered the most respect and attention.
In search of a signature career-defining win, Kovalev got the opportunity to face the ageless one, Bernard Hopkins, and the Russian-born light heavyweight jumped at the chance to fight one of the best fighters of the last decade.
With many only giving Kovalev a chance against Hopkins if he was able to flex his power and KO “The Alien”, the 31-year-old showed he had more dimensions to his fight game other than a heavy hand.
Sure, Kovalev knocked Hopkins down in the bout, but Kovlaev showed his boxing ability and that he can go a full 12 rounds, after not going past eight rounds in his previous bouts, and not have a big let up in his intensity.
“My goal wasn’t to knock him out, because it’s just a knock down” Kovalev said about his performance versus Hopkins. “I needed to keep control for all the fight… I wanted to show to my friends, the boxing fans how I can do boxing and for me, myself, I think so, I did it.”
The Krusher opened up his 2014 fight year knocking out Cedric Agnew in Round 7 of their bout in March. He strung together his second fight won by early stoppage in August, besting Blake Caparello via Round 2 TKO.
Another fighter who could of taken home Fighter of the Year honors was Terence Crawford (25-0, 17 KOs) who also fought three times in 2014, but the two biggest fights (TKO win over Yuriorkis Gamboa and a unanimous decision against Raymundo Beltran) took place in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
One cannot ignore what a hometown advantage gives to a fighter, or any person or team in professional sports for that matter, so although Crawford was impressive in his wins, he had his biggest moments of the year in the comfort of his own backyard.
Add to that Kovalev’s wife giving birth to their first child in the midst of the lead up to the Hopkins bout, and it displayed the determination he had to take the biggest opportunity of his professional career and make the most of it.
So here’s to Kovalev for proving to the boxing community that he is one of the most dangerous men in the sport and has us all looking to forward to his 2015 campaign, which begins with the big time showdown with Jean Pascal in March.
Honorable mentions: Terence Crawford, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin.
