Hopkins looking to beat Pascal on Saturday and break Foreman’s record

By Eric Thomas: 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) is hoping to become the oldest fighter to ever win a world title when he takes on World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) in a rematch on Saturday night at the Bell Center in Montreal, Canada. Hopkins wants to beat George Foreman’s record, which dates back to 1994, when a then 45-year-old Foreman was able to stop IBF/WBA heavyweight champ Michael Moorer in the 10th round to capture his titles.

Foreman was losing the fight at the time and looked to be in poor physical shape compared to the first part of his career when he had little fat on him. Hopkins, if he wins, likely won’t be doing it by knockout, because he hasn’t recorded a knockout in over seven years. Pascal wasn’t troubled by Hopkins’ power in their 12 round draw last year in December.

It was more of a case of Hopkins out-working Pascal on the inside and getting the better of him. Pascal is a fighter that likes to fight in short bursts. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches and seems incapable of doing that. He’s not going to be able to out-work Hopkins in their rematch on Saturday, that much is a given. Pascal’s best chance of winning the fight is either by getting off to a fast start like he did last time out and try to knock Hopkins down and win the early rounds.

Pascal probably will run out of gas again like he did in the first fight and will struggle with Hopkins down the stretch. It’s going to take a better performance from Pascal to win the fight this time out, because he didn’t appear to do enough to get the win last time. It’s doubtful that the judges will lean in his direction again if he gets outworked again. Pascal has got to at least look good in some of the rounds in the second half of the fight in addition to sweeping most of the first six. Whether Pascal can do that is unclear, because he didn’t show the ability to throw more than a handful of punches in each round last time he faced Hopkins.

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