Pavlik vs. Hopkins

[jonman12]

ESPN - Notebook: Pavlik gunning for KO against Hopkins - Boxing

[jonman12]

Active Hopkins dominates champion Pavlik to win non-title fight

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Bernard Hopkins gave Kelly Pavlik a boxing lesson and a first loss that he will never forget.

The 43-year-old Hopkins used lightning quick combinations and a cagey, near-perfect defense to embarrass and confuse Pavlik in a 12-round non-title bout Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall.

Hopkins, who dominated the middleweight class for a decade, made the 26-year-old Pavlik -- the WBC and WBO middleweight champion -- look slow and powerless in fighting at 170 pounds, 10 pounds over his weight class.

"I think this was my best performance, better than [Antonio] Tarver, better than [Felix] Trinidad, better than Oscar [De La Hoya], better than my 21 defenses," Hopkins said. "I am extremely happy."

Hopkins received winning scores of 119-106 from judge Alan Rubenstein, 117-109 from Barbara Perez and 118-108 from Steve Weisfeld.

The mismatch was obvious from the opening bell, and Hopkins reveled in the beating he gave the Youngstown, Ohio boxer. By the fifth round, Pavlik was bleeding from the nose and by the seventh Hopkins was taunting him.

During one stretch in the round, Hopkins landed four or five straight punches, and then stepped back started winding up on his punches before delivering them.

"He was a great fighter but I knew my style and quickness was underrated and it was going to give him problems tonight," Hopkins added.

Pavlik (34-1) never stopped stalking Hopkins of Philadelphia, but he never seemed to hurt him.

"I just could not get off tonight," Pavlik said. "I don't know why? It was not his slickness. It just wasn't me out there tonight. I couldn't do anything I'm used to doing. We're going back to the drawing board. it just wasn't me tonight. I'll be more comfortable going back to 160."

With tinges of gray in his beard, Hopkins even looked the fresher fighter. He came into ring wearing an executioner's mask and black robe with an 'X' on both, and he terminated Pavlik's perfect mark in improving to (49-5-1).

The crowd had come to hail Pavlik, who had battered Gary Lockett in his first title defense in June.

When he was in trouble early, they chanted "Kel-lee! Kel-lee!"

Halfway through the fight the chants become "B-Hop! B-Hop!"

Hopkins landed a barrage of blows in the 12th round and started yelling at Pavlik in a move that was no more than a gleeful taunt.

"I wanted to pick it up and step it up," Hopkins said. "I wanted to stop him."

When the final bell sounded, both fighters continued to throw punches, forcing referee Benji Esteves to dive between them.

Hopkins then walked over to the television cameras and glared, wondering how so many had predicted that Pavlik would knock him out for the first time in his career.

In hindsight, it's a wonder Pavlik was still standing at the end.

Hopkins praised Pavlik after the fight.

"I was a fan of yours before the fight and I am a fan of yours now," Hopkins told Pavlik in the corner. "You just need to get a little more slickness. You need to bend you knees more like your coach was telling you. Middleweight is your destiny."

ESPN - Active Hopkins dominates champion Pavlik to win non-title fight - Boxing

[LasciviousXXX]

Just watched this the other day, not a bad fight.

[mobb13]

Hopkins is a legend no question but i do think its time to hang them up! the guy is reaching 40. Same goes for Roy jones

[jonman12]

Originally Posted by mobb13

Hopkins is a legend no question but i do think its time to hang them up! the guy is reaching 40. Same goes for Roy jones

hopkins is still doing his thing unlike Roy Jones.

[LasciviousXXX]

Originally Posted by jonman12

hopkins is still doing his thing unlike Roy Jones.

True, and you've got to respect his heart.

[jonman12]

Bernard Hopkins: How I beat Kelly Pavlik

Bernard Hopkins: How I beat Kelly Pavlik
5:41 PM, October 20, 2008

"How do you know how great you are without doubters?"

That's the question Bernard Hopkins asked Monday during an extended explanation of how he shocked the boxing world with a unanimous (119-106, 118-108, 117-109) decision over previously unbeaten Kelly Pavlik on Saturday.

"When I was done, I looked out at media row, stared out at the audience and I said, 'I'm tired of proving myself.' I had reached my boiling point. In and out of the ring, there's nothing else I can do."

What the 43-year-old Hopkins proved in his conquest of the 26-year-old middleweight champion from Youngstown, Ohio, is that when experience is teamed with fitness, youth and a powerful right hand stand little chance.

"I'm hearing about a lot of 40-year-olds who saw the fight walking with their chest out ... you have to be skinnin' and grinnin' after seeing that," Hopkins said.

Hopkins said his Saturday night masterpiece -- which he claims surpassed his previous high-profile victories over Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya -- was triggered by homework. In studying Pavlik's victories over Jermain Taylor, Edison Miranda and Gary Lockett, he said he noticed Pavlik continually "jabs and tries to line you up with his right."

"I asked myself, 'Why not go to his left and make him punch across chest?' That's awkward to do. That was his problem.

"I knew you can't beat a great athlete in just one way. I admit sometimes the way I fight is not pretty, but I do what I got to do. I wouldn't let him connect."

Roiled by predictions that he'd suffer his first knockout loss, Hopkins spent the night sticking to his strategy, delivering a steady diet of rarely used jabs and punches that left the favorite bloodied and confused.

"I took a page from the sweet science of boxing: hit and not be hit," Hopkins said. "We got too used in this sport to the Ultimate Fighting, big punch-type of fighting. I was sidestepping and he had to keep churning his legs. He had to adjust and didn't know how. It was all about position, position, position."

Now, Hopkins has a Nov. 8 fight to watch between the man who edged him by decision in April, Joe Calzaghe, and the veteran fighter who could secure a long-awaited date perhaps by the spring, Roy Jones Jr.

"If we can get that fight [with Jones] everyone's been waiting a decade for, in the [Madison Square] Garden, that's a fight you don't want to miss," Hopkins said.

[LasciviousXXX]

A good strategy apparently payed off for him.

He has a cool Affliction shirt too

[stpierrecanada]

Hopkins just won't go away. He really is something, just when you think he may be going down he beats takes Pavlik. Wow.

[numgilun]

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