Pavlik-Hopkins
Pavlik-Hopkins. October 18. Atlantic City. HBO Pay-Per-View.
Are you excited yet?
Labels: Atlantic City, Bernard Hopkins, Boardwalk Hall, boxing, Eddie Goldman, HBO, Kelly Pavlik, pay-per-view
posted by Eddie Goldman @ 8:45 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Not excited, nor would I bet against Hopkins. Not the same as saying I'd pick him.
Kind of the same deal as Calzaghe for Hopkins, no? If he loses a close, hard-to-score, debatable decision, it's no skin off his all-time nose, but if he wins it's a major late-career achievement. Pavlik seems busier and more dynamic than Calzaghe, but also maybe a little less canny, a little more abandoned, a little more likely to step into traps as he comes forward looking to tear Hopkins up, so in that sense he's not a bad matchup for Hopkins, despite being young and strong and dynamic enough to offer the usual problem for a wise old head to try to solve. As usual with Hopkins, I'm interested. In fact, these are two of the more interesting fighters out there, and for very different reasons, which helps to make the matchup appealing.
That's about it, Carlo. Those are the only kind of fights Hopkins will take. And there's plenty of them out there, sadly.
The irony here is that Calzaghe-Jones and Pavlik-Hopkins provides two good potential matchups. The guys just need to switch opponents to make it work.
Make that "provide." I've been around the fight game a little too long.
It looks like HBO had an open ppv date and two of their fighters with no opponents, so they just matched them up. There is no other reason for this fight.
There has been no logical build-up, no progression to it. Pavlik is suddenly leaving behind a fight with the non-HBO middleweight Abraham to go to a catch-weight of 170 with Hopkins.
It could be a build-up for Calzaghe-Pavlik if they both win, since Calzaghe has said that he will stay at 168 and is keeping one of his belts there. On its own, however, Pavlik-Hopkins looks like another show with 200,000 to 250,000 buys at best. Boxing buffs will watch it, but I don’t see it having much appeal beyond that.
And it is on the weekend where the final games of the American and National League playoffs will likely be held, all, of course, on free, broadcast TV.
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