Thank Me Later! The Best Possible Fights to be Made in 2014.

Now that 2014 is halfway through and hot on the heels of the recent non-announcement of Mayweather/Maidana II this Fall, it's time to speculate what other fights we should expect to see in the second half of this year. The following are fights that are plausible and could have a good chance of happening.

Will we get them or not? Hard to say. Should any Showtime or HBO executives be reading this and willing to take my ideas, by all means! Without further ado...

Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley III

Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado III
Chris Algieri vs. Ruslan Provodnikov II

Quick: How do you get Manny Pacquiao out of the sub 500k pay per view range? You give him a lot of help thanks to the one thing Top Rank does not want you to see, and that's a quality undercard!

Similar to Don King's excellent "Rematches" card in the mid 90s, this pay per view would produce three competitive and alluring fights that are well worth the price of admission. Algieri/Provodnikov II is already being considered by HBO, Rios/Alvarado III is a natural fight considering the state of both fighters careers and Pacquiao/Bradley III would raise an eyebrow or two despite it being the weakest fight on the card.

Bradley is getting positioned for another meaningful fight, be it a ridiculous match up with Miguel Cotto at 160 pounds or even a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, but he's a cheap enough opponent to guarantee Pacquiao's purse demands. The winner of Rios/Alvarado III could find themselves against the winner of Algieri/Provodnikov II, fight each other and Top Rank has their potential opponent for the winner of Pacquiao/Bradley III.

Bernard Hopkins vs. Adonis Stevenson

Paulie Malignaggi vs. Luis Collazo

Peter Quillin vs. Curtis Stevens

This split-site card would take place in Montreal and New York for a sensational triple header. Hopkins/Stevenson has been a lock to happen since Stevenson defected from HBO to Showtime, and if the lawsuit being filed against his team by Main Events promotions couldn't stop him from fighting once this year, it won't stop him now.

The Barclays card would feature Paulie Malignaggi vs. Luis Collazo with a loser leaves town stipulation (kidding, but not). Quillin/Stevens is a great fight to see Quillin graduate from the minor leagues in regards to his opponents and Stevens will have another chance to capture a world title in front of the big stage.

These three fights each have a good amount of significance of their own, but together they become a must see event. 

Miguel Cotto vs. James Kirkland
Terence Crawford vs. Reymundo Beltran
Andy Lee vs. Joshua Clottey

I don't know who Top Rank was trying to kid when they talked about matching up Cotto against Bradley for his recently won Middleweight title, especially when Kirkland has done a whole lot of nothing since nearly killing Glen Tapia last year. Cotto/Kirkland is an unbelievably violent fight that would put Cotto up against a younger, hungrier and stronger fighter who may be looking at his only chance to win gold.

To make it a pay per view, putting the two best fighters at Lightweight against each other in the co-main wouldn't hurt. Crawford and Beltran both could say they are champions based off of their performances over Ricky Burns (Beltran was robbed where Crawford won comfortably), and both are coming off of great performances in recent fights. Crawford may not have many fights left at 135, but Beltran should be one that he takes.

Maybe a throwaway fight between Andy Lee and former Welterweight champion Joshua Clottey can turn into more than what people are expecting and be a cheap opponent for the winner of the main event. This would be one heck of a card to have before the end of the year. 

Shawn Porter vs. Robert Guerrero

Jorge Linares vs. Omar Figueroa

The best way to close out the year is with a series of fights that will set the stage for big fights for the next year. Since Guerrero will do anything to stay the hell away from Keith Thurman since he does nothing for him monetarily, would he say the same for a title fight with Porter? Probably not, so this high stakes title fight can happen.

In addition to that, Linares/Figueroa can very well be a fight of the year candidate that will validate Figueroa as a truly arrived star or can be Linares' return to glory at the expense of Figueroa's undefeated record. 

Last year ended with a blistering fight card that had the same formula, and this wouldn't be any less of a bruiser.