Crawford beats Pacquiao for ESPN Fighter of the Year

MANILA, Philippines – Even though Manny Pacquiao made the shortlist of candidates for ESPN’s 2014 Fighter of the Year along with other five contenders, the Filipino boxing icon came up short to up-and-coming star Terence Crawford.

Crawford (25-0, 17 knockouts) took home the citation courtesy of his flourishing 2014 campaign that catapulted him to stardom by capturing the World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightweight belt and defending it twice against gritty opposition.

“He won all three of his fights in impressive fashion, beat three quality opponents, won a world title, engaged in a fight of the year candidate, became a bona fide ticket seller in Omaha, and positioned himself for huge future business,” ESPN boxing expert Dan Rafael explained. 

The 27-year-old pugilist known as “Bud” spearheaded his year by outpointing British boxer Ricky Burns by unanimous decision to win WBO’s 135-pound top prize in March.

Crawford doubled the feat in his first title defense by thwarting Cuban stalwart Yuriorkis Gamboa via ninth-round technical knockout in June before he schooled Raymundo Beltran in 12 rounds five months later.

After pulling off a stellar accomplishment in 2014, the 5-foot-8 native of Omaha, Nebraska is toying with the idea of moving up from lightweight to junior welterweight, but he is also one of the highly-touted prospects to face WBO welterweight titleholder Pacquiao in 2015.

“Crawford, now firmly established as an HBO cornerstone fighter, is set to move up to junior welterweight in 2015, where big bouts await him. He had a helluva 2014 and had an idea he would be in the fighter of the year running,” Rafael noted.

Like Crawford, Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) had a productive year and answered unreciprocated questions from his lopsided routing of Brandon Rios in November 2013.

“Despite the easy win against Rios, there were many who still questioned what Pacquiao had left in the tank. He showed that it was still a lot in 2014 as he notched a pair of dominant wins and regained a welterweight world title,” Rafael pointed out.

Pacquiao settled the score with Timothy Bradley Jr. in a rematch in April 2014 to reclaim the WBO welterweight belt via unanimous decision.

Boxing’s only eight-division world champion emphatically proved to all and sundry that he is not yet done with the sport when he locked horns with previously unbeaten boxer Chris Algieri last November 23 at the Venetian Hotel’s Cotai Arena in Macau, China.

Round 6 knockdown. #PacAlgieri pic.twitter.com/rUfbeLPLJ9

— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) November 23, 2014

Pacquiao knocked down the American challenger six times en route to a unanimous decision triumph with the scores of 119-103, 119-103 and 120-102 to keep his WBO welterweight strap around his waist.

IN PHOTOS: Pacquiao vs Algieri

Aside from Pacquiao and Crawford, four more fighters were included on ESPN’s Fighter of the Year list for their astounding output in 2014.

Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) made three exceptional light heavyweight title defenses in 2014, concluding his year with a shutout decision victory over future hall-of-famer Bernard Hopkins.

Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) highlighted a brilliant performance in his lone 2014 outing by bagging the World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight title against Sergio Martinez in June.

Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) won all three of his 2014 bouts by knockout, while Roman Gonzalez (41-0, 35 KOs) won four-straight matches by stoppage this year and took the WBC flyweight belt from Akira Yaegashi in September. – Rappler.com