What led up to the scuffle was Hopkins snatching Pascal’s World Boxing Council strap and then not giving it back to Pascal when he tried to get it back. Hopkins was spoiling for a confrontation and he only partially succeeded in getting one because of the grabbing that was done when Pascal came in close to try and take back his belt. I’m really hoping that Saturday’s fight won’t have a lot of clinching done by Hopkins, but I can’t see him fighting any other way at this point in his career.
Clinching and wrestling is what Hopkins does to slow down the action in his fights nowadays and it works against the types of fighters that he’s been fighting recently. However, Hopkins hasn’t faced a fighter with blazing hand speed like Pascal since he suffered back to back defeats at the hands of Jermain Taylor in 2005. Since then, Hopkins has faced Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright, Joe Calzaghe, Kelly Pavlik, Enrique Ornelas and 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. In facing Jones, Hopkins went up against a fighter with still good hand speed.
The problem is Jones pretty much failed to throw any punches in the fight and mostly just stood there like a statue and let Hopkins control the fight. Pascal is a much different fighter than the types of guys that Hopkins has been facing, and I can’t see this going well for Hopkins even with him clinching after every punch. He simply can’t clinch enough to beat a fighter like Pascal, because he’ll be getting off with his shots before Hopkins grabs him every time.
It’s going to be a case of a fighter having too much speed and work rate for another one. Hopkins will probably play up any punches that come near his belt line and look to the referee to take points away. I can see some flopping on the canvas, and maybe some drama if Pascal lands a shot that comes close to the back of Hopkins’ head. I’m hoping that the fight doesn’t get slowed down to a crawl like Hopkins’ last few fights but I can’t see it going any other way.
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