Hopkins says he had Pascal beat up – but did he?
December 21st, 2010
By Dan Ambrose: 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins has been complaining long and hard about his 12 round majority draw he received in his bout last weekend against World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal, in Quebec, Canada. Hopkins thinks he should have won the fight, and even goes so far to say that he had Pascal beaten up in the fight.
It makes me wonder if Hopkins is overestimating his own power. He might have been able to throw with greater power if he wasn’t diving forward head first all the time smothering his own shots by throwing in close. Hopkins lacked hand speed and he never really did have good power even in his prime years. His power hasn’t gotten any better as far as I can tell.
After the fight Hopkins said “I had the guy beat up. You don’t see Pascal jumping around happy.” Pascal wasn’t jumping around was because he was tired and obviously disappointed in his performance. He knows he didn’t fight his best fight. However, he still did enough to get a draw based on the two knockdowns of Hopkins early in the fight, and some of the other rounds in which Pascal did enough to win them. There was a lot of rounds that were close, because even though Hopkins was throwing more shots, Pascal was landing the harder punches that connected cleaner.
Hopkins would land 15 to 20 weaker shots on the inside while leaning forward and throwing little more than slow arm punches. And then Pascal would turn around and throw blistering fast hook or uppercut that would connect and snap Hopkins’ head around. There was more than a few huge punches landed by Pascal in every round and he always seemed to be the one landing the better shots in each round. To be sure, Hopkins landed more punches but they weren’t landing as clean as Pascal’s punches. And Hopkins is hallucinating if he thinks he beat Pascal up, because that didn’t happen unless Hopkins has a low bar for what he considers beating up someone.
Tags: 31 Responses to “Hopkins says he had Pascal beat up – but did he?”
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Pascal had more solid connects. more behind his punches. It appeared that Hopkins went down 3 times, THATS WHY PASCAL WON.
Laugh at people say Pascal big legend, he won the fight, Hopkins just “dirty”, he got dropped twice that means he lost fight.
Thats what is annoying about this site. Full of fools who know nothing about boxing, go learn a bit about it and then come back with half decent comments.
i was rather surprised at the post fight intervue when the comment was made to the veiwing audience that Hopkins clearly won.he has to go back and watch the fight on tape again.
Bernards ego was speaking,thats for sure.He took the better punches,and took them well.just becawse he takes a hell of a punch.bernard still is very competative no doubt.
Yeah he had him hurt, Pascal was holding Hopkins as if they were ballroom dancing and that’s a fact.
it shows you pascal aint no Super star. He couldnt stop a 45 year old. infact Hopkins was the better fighter. Pascal is used goods im afraid.
Whats all this rubbish abt at least 1 clear knockdown? Hopkins got hit clean twice and went down there is no argument. His technique is appalling. I cant stand to watch him. He only chooses to fight guys he thinks he can mess around an steal fights with. Jones played with him an hopkins avoided a rematch till jones was shot, avoided dawson who with his good jab and technical ability would school. He flops all over th floor for nothing. Th guy is disgrace. The only reason he’s lasted so long is because he had no amateur wear and tear. If you rate this bum with the true legends jones, leonard robinson, ali, duran you know nothing at all abt boxing. Get lost bernard your messy boring mauling fouling style is terrible.
Hopkins edged Pascal by a point or two but I still don’t think a draw is a robbery. A Pascal win would have been a robbery but a draw was fair. Hopkins went down twice in the first three rounds and lost every round. The middle rounds could have gone either way but Hopkins was really coming on but he was in a deep hole. The last rounds belinged to BHop but the questions was had he done enough to climb out of the original hole he was in. So,
A Hopkins win would have been great, a draw would have been fair, and a Pascal win would have been unjust and undeserved. A draw was fair so BHOP needs to get over it
I’m not a fan of Hopkins but he fought well and deserved a better decision. Pascal looked a poor champion on the night.
agreed
Whether or not Pascal was bleeding or anything, he was definitely more marked up than Hopkins was despite the fact that Pascal landed some good hard shots. Some would even say cleaner shots.
Pascal gets the draw based on the way fights are scored. Hopkins clearly was the better fighter/boxer throughout the fight. True there were some close rounds that could have gone either way, there were no rounds where you can say that Pascal clearly won. Even with the knockdowns. The first round was close and could have gone either way. The third round was definitely a Hopkins round, but the knockdown not only denied Hopkins from getting the credit for being the better fighter, it awarded Pascal an extra point.
The point system allows for outcomes like this one where a fighter who was clearly schooled for the better part of 12 rounds can still get out with a draw for scoring lucky knockdowns. I say lucky because at no point was Pascal dominating or setting Hopkins up to land those hard shots. In my opinion, rounds with a knockdown should only be scored 10-8 if the fighter who scored the knockdown was winning the round anyway. This still gives a fighter the benefit or scoring the knockdown by awarding him the round he may have lost, but it also doesn’t completely take away from the fighter who was winning the round outside of the knockdown.
Based on the point system, Pascal got a justifiable and understandable draw. Anyone who was watching that fight knows B-Hop was the better man that night.
All of you fools who said Pascal won, explain how? I have watched the fight 10 times and you cannot win rounds going backwards and only throwing a few shots which is what happened after the 3rd round. The first knock down was whack, a shot to the back of the head which knocks a fighters off balance is NOT a knock down, but even if you gave him the 2 knock downs, he still lost the rounds. lets say that Pascal won the 1st 3 rounds with the 2 knock downs, I still had Hopkins winning every round after. 4-12 for Hopkins because he walked Pascal down, threw AND landed way more shots. Pascal did nothing to win that fight. he has a 24×24 foot ring and he ran around throwing crazy haymakers and landed almost nothing. im beginning to think that you so called “boxing fans” are really just groupies rooting for the fighter they like rather than watching the damn fight and giving credit where credit is due… Hopkins beat that young chump of a champ!!!
Hopkins won that fight. He was the better fighter
Hopkins threw weak arm punches? Well Dan, if that’s the case then we can all conclude from this fight it only takes ‘weak arm punches’ to shut down Pascal’s game.
When Hopkins says Pascal was ‘beaten up’ I think he may have been referring, at least in part, to Pascal’s mental state.
On the other hand;growing up outside Philly, I hate seeing Bernard complain. He should have just said ‘well, I’m practically an antique, I did the best I could’ People would have more respect.
Be that as it may; after round four Bernard dictated the fight.
Two knock downs by Pascal, easily 7 rounds in the bag for B-Hop. In my opinion, the draw was a fair outcome. I hate draws but that’s how I called it too.
Jean PASCAL win the fight
LOL @ whiny americans here even the AMERICAIN commentators say the fight was close and could go either way!
PASCAL dropped old man hopkins round1 round3
americans always complain when their fighters lose
first jean PASCAL beats so called bad Chad Dawson
DROPS old man Hopkins
NOW should fight Roy Jones and beat him
PASCAL THE BEST FIGHTER
I had Pascal by 1 round.Still unfinished business though.
Dumbnard Hopkins cheated with his head and fought dirty. Pascal is a true class. No one will look good against the old roids and peds user that is Dumbnard, who is using these age-defying illegal drugs to make hime still compete today. Drop dead twice Dumbnard!
The guy who wrote this article obvisiously didn’t watch the fight!! Jean pascal doesn’t even belong to be champion n the first place!!! He fought an old fighter and was beaten up,!!! He doesn’t have the mark of a great champion. I guarantee you he will get knocked out in his next fight!!!!! I mean come on he throws punches with his eyes close!!!!he looked terrible against an older fight
B-Hopeless is a cheater and a dirty fighter. The great Pascal floored the show-off American like a true warrior. B-Hopeless is a shame to boxing.
b hop beat pascal they just cheated for him
If you give Hopkins two points for being old he wins the fight.
doncaster boxing says:
December 21, 2010 at 8:16 pm
twice on the floor and butting and holding all night dont get you a wbc belt.”
butting & holding all night? you must not have seen the fight.
Giving the fight to Pascal would have been a robbery, getting a draw is a fair outcome. Getting knocked down twice (even if the first one was questionable) you almost have to KO the guy to get the win, especially in his home town. I like Bhop but zip it and move on.
everyone have a good think.were in the history of boxing has the champion knocked the challenger down twice and fought well and not been to floor and lost on points.? yes hopkins did well for 45 years old but stop and think about it.twice on the floor and butting and holding all night dont get you a wbc belt.ask dirrell.
Dan ur a nobody and a hater
Wow!!!! Look how salty Dan ambrose is. You can’t take him serious, he knows Nothing about boxing, never put on gloves before in his life.he’s nothing more than a hater, who hates all black fighters… what a loser, get a life you purp..
Hopkins just tries to ruin fights with his underhand tactics. He didn’t do enough to unseat the champion and thats the bottom line.
Accept that your career is over you washed up Yank! You’d think he’d learn after the lesson that Calzaghe taught him
HOPKINS WON!
Hopkins clearly won plus 1 knockdown was in the back of the head which shouldn’t of counted..
It is now obvious Dan Ambrose did not even watch this fight.
truthfully, I do not like Hopkins style of fighting. But on this one, for fairness sake, the old guy deserves to win by UD- two points on my scorecard!