Hopkins schools Pavlik, silences critics

Posted at boxingcapital.com
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As the fight ended, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins stared coldly to the members of the media in attendance. With sweat cascading down his grim face, The Executioner delivered a strong statement to the media—a great majority of whom had predicted that the night would see the closing of his career—that they were all wrong.

Dead wrong, to put it correctly.

The question of whether Hopkins’ 43 year old legs could still keep up with a much younger, hungrier and stronger fighter had just been answered emphatically. And Hopkins told the media in his act that he was not their grand ad with nothing left in his arsenal but phony tricks and other boring maneuvers. With his dominating performance, an accomplishment that “would give hope to the hopeless” as he put it before the fight, the aging future hall of famer has showed to the world that he was actually a 30 year old body with the superior ring intelligence of a 43 year old veteran.

Hopkins, who now improves to 49-5-1, 32 KOs, schooled Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik in a 12 round bout at a catch-weight of 170 lbs with his terrific hand speed, superior footwork, superb defense, and greater overall ringcraft. The lopsided Hopkins victory handed Pavlik, now 34-1, 30 KOs, the first loss of his career, which was built on terrorizing the middleweight division with his heavy right hand and knocking out opponent after opponent. This was the reputation dangerous puncher Pavlik was supposed to bring to the Hopkins fight, but failed to live up to.

The fight was very lopsided with the final scorecards of 118-106, 117-109 and 118-108 all in the favor of Hopkins. It was a very dominating performance for the aging veteran all through out the distance. It was a Hopkins show from round one to the final bell as Pavlik failed to deliver anything significant that would force Hopkins to abandon his game plan to suit his. The masterful display of boxing artistry and quick left hooks even silenced the pro-Pavlik crowd who were chanting his name in round two.

The complexion of the fight never changed from round one to round 12, aside from the occasional flurries Pavlik would let out, which, unfortunately for the Pavlik fans, were very few and far between. Pavlik would throw a left jab and Hopkins would either counter and hold or dance away after countering with a quick left or right.

From round one to four, Pavlik tried to catch Hopkins with his lead lefts and straight rights but failed to land anything of significance. He did connect with his left jabs several times in these rounds but never managed to build on it. Hopkins was simply masterful in his game of not getting hit while punishing Pavlik with his quick left hooks upstairs and one-two combinations everywhere else. The most notable actions in the first four rounds of the fight occurred during round two as Hopkins connected with a quick left hook to the chin that hurt Pavlik. A flurry followed and another hard left hook connected for Hopkins. Pavlik looked in trouble and Hopkins was poised to dictate the complexion of the game: beat Pavlik to the punch; don’t engage for too long; either hug or dance away quickly; and never let Pavlik finds comfort on working his way behind the left jab. Something Hopkins would execute masterfully until the final bell.

The story of schooling and manhandling continued during the second third of the fight as Hopkins proved to be too elusive for the Youngstown native. The target was there for the left jab, but Hopkins would no longer be available to receive the big right even before Pavlik unloaded it. It was very frustrating for The Ghost and the crowd were now chanting Hopkins name. The fight, however, had started to become interesting as Pavlik was now having success, albeit sporadic, in bringing the fight to Hopkins. Pavlik had increased his work rate and Hopkins has slowed down his pace. Could this be the point that the tide would turn to the favor of the youngster as said by some analysts who theorized that Hopkins legs would betray him at the second half of the contest?

However, Hopkins skills, intelligence and speed were simply several notches above Pavlik’s. There would be occasional roughhousing from rounds six to ten—a kind of fight that was supposed to favour Pavlik and his underrated uppercuts—but Hopkins would prove to be too slick and smart for him. The referee took away a point for Pavlik for hitting whilst holding during round eight only to even it for The Ghost as he deducted a point for Hopkins for holding in the following round.

Round 11 was the most interesting round for Pavlik as Hopkins turned to clinching. It was Pavlik’s best round. Hopkins would throw one and then clinch. But by doing that, he never allowed Pavlik to connect flush. He would give one, take one and hold. Was The Executioner now abandoning his brilliant game plan due to his supposed inability to mount a sustained offensive assault or was he feeling the power of Pavlik who had now connected with several telling shots to his body during the previous rounds? The answer would be neither; Hopkins was simply conserving energy as he planned to finish round 12 and the fight strongly, thereby proving all the media critics wrong – Hopkins was spitting defiance to all those who said he couldn’t last 12 rounds with a younger and supposedly stronger fighter.

Hopkins engaged, stood in front of Pavlik, exchanged flurries and mocked Pavlik, who just couldn’t connect with his much touted right hand. It was the most exciting round of the fight as Hopkins connected with some hard shots, rocking Pavlik. The action heightened with ten seconds left on the clock and the older Hopkins simply appeared to be the fresher of the two.

“Whoever I fight now, I’m going for the knock-out,” Hopkins said during the post-fight interview. He also said he wants to fight Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones, Jr. again. As for Kelly Pavlik, it’s back to the drawing board.