Hopkins-Pavlik: An Execution

By Adam Laiolo: Passing of the baton, old guard replaced by new they said. Youth vs. Experience and the hope of a nation dreaming of seeing a new hero crowned. Kelly Pavlik, current middleweight champion, against Bernard Hopkins, former undisputed middleweight champion for ten years and future hall of famer. The favor was for a Pavlik whitewash, with the hype around him blinding people to one thing – he was fighting Bernard Hopkins. I mean Bernard thrives in these circumstances. What happened next was not in the script. From the first bell, Hopkins sliding around the ring getting a feel for Pavlik, hitting with flush shots and making him miss, counter-punching Pavlik with overhand rights and left hooks.

Pavlik had nothing, no answer and when Bernard busted Pavlik’s nose early on, I knew this fight was over. The later rounds was thought to be a factor with Hopkins being 17 years his senior and I was waiting for something from Pavlik to show he actually could hurt Hopkins, but nothing. Constantly plodding forward, not even landing a scrape on Hopkins, yet getting constantly caught flush only frustrated him more, forcing him into making mistakes. I don’t remember, even after re-watching the fight, a meaningful spell of dominance, not for ten seconds.

This was the great vs. the good, no doubt about it. Pavlik’s straight forward fighting and limited skills was easy meat for a vastly experienced and technically sound fighter like Bernard. At 43 years of age, what he has done is something special, shown his continuous doubters wrong time and time again to the point we don’t recognize the fact that there is no-one boxing today with a list of wins over great fighters like Bernard’s.

Did anyone really doubt whether he’d be beaten, even at the ripe old of 43, by a fighter with nothing but a right hand to trouble him? I’ve already heard the cries of ‘Hopkins didn’t fight like that against Calzaghe, he’d have beaten him otherwise.’ Yeah try fighting like that against Calzaghe and he’ll beat you to the punch every time.

This puts Joe’s win in perspective certainly, and a Pavlik fight now rendered meaningless and unattractive and a Hopkins rematch looks to be the shout going out at the moment, maybe even in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Bernard can bow out as an all time great, wait for the call from Canastota after his bout with the Calzaghe vs. Jones winner and he should get all the respect he deserves. Pavlik should move down to middleweight and test himself against the likes of Arthur Abraham and maybe Paul Williams, fighters who can cause him more than a few problems.

Its whether he can come back from such a humiliating defeat. Bernard says he changes fighters, that they’re different men after he’s fought them, and few, if any have gone on to greater things. For me, it was typical Bernard and it was a privilege to watch such an old school performance and him turning back the clock. Pavlik was just another to suffer the same fate as many, an execution.

7 Responses to “Hopkins-Pavlik: An Execution”