Hopkins-Pavlik
There's a lot to be said both culturally and generationally about last night's fight. Two things jump out at me. The first is that Bernard Hopkins is never going to be snookered into a loss. You've got to really know how to fight in order to beat him. He's a terrible choice as an opponent for someone on the verge of stardom who hasn't been entirely tested. The second thing (and I think it's a very sophisticated point regarding a fighter's development) is that Kelly Pavlik's fate was probably sealed before the fight by the kind of "blue collar hero" marketing that was done on his behalf (to say nothing of Bob Arum's vast overestimation of him.) This type of pigeonholing (which made it necessary for Kelly to stick with an amateur trainer when he could have had a pro) forced Kelly Pavlik to be one kind of fighter. He's capable of learning (witness the vast improvement between his first and second Taylor fights), but can't do that if he's supposed to fight in a specific manner.
posted by Charles Farrell @ 11:59 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hopkins is without question one of the top-5 middleweights in history. I've been saying that for the last five years. This guy is a surgeon. Punchers and strong guys are a drink of water for him. Fighters with speed, who can throw a high volume of punches are more troublesome for him now, but not so much when he was in his prime. Yeah, Jones speed nullified him, but he was green and not the great pro he evolved into when they fought in 1993.
In my opinion, I can only say that Robinson & Greb were superior to him at 160.
This view that Hopkins couldn’t fight three minutes of every round, and especially for 12 rounds, was spread around the media like a bad rash, or an urban legend. I know I fell for it.
Hopkins wasn’t more active in his fight with Calzaghe, and also the Taylor fights, because he couldn’t, because of their styles. It was not because he was slipping into his golden years.
Looking back, Pavlik seemed a bit more like a party host than a boxer getting ready to do battle in the ring, a schmoozer for his 5000 Youngstown fans rather than a nasty bastard like Hopkins who was obsessed only with winning. I think Pavlik figured that all he had to do was show up, and he would win. The only question was by decision or knockout. Once he started getting outclassed in the first round, he could not adjust.
But who are we sold on as invincible these days? Pavlik joins fellow Top Rank fighter Miguel Cotto in losing his undefeated record this year by an upset to a master. Maybe such expectations of maintaining an unbeaten record for long are only fair for Calderon and, if he returns, Mayweather.
It will be interesting to see how Pavlik adjusts. His postfight explanation was that he just couldn’t get his punches off, that he didn’t know why, and that it was not because of Hopkins’s speed and savvy. Perhaps the shock, and the effect of Hopkins’s punches, have worn off by now, and he has figured out just what went wrong. That will require assessing his limitations, always difficult for everyone.
A loss like this ruins many fighters, which Hopkins promised to do to Pavlik before this fight. But Hopkins also told Pavlik in the ring after the fight to go back to middleweight, where he said no one would beat him. Pavlik now has to defend the WBC belt against Rubio, who won a disputed SD over Ornelas on this card.
Charles made an interesting point about Pavlik having to fight a certain way. I guess in the minds of the HBO “creative” people, a working class fighter must be a brawler. I guess if he doesn’t fight like John Wayne, he belongs on Showtime.
It was, though, a beautiful, old school fight. I have to stay neutral, but I watched it with a secret smile. I felt the same way when Hopkins was fighting Trinidad. If only it had been on free TV.
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