Hopkins-Pascal: Close Decisions and Robberies are two completely different things!!!

By Boxing News - 12/20/2010 - Comments

Image: Hopkins-Pascal: Close Decisions and Robberies are two completely different things!!!By Tommaso Nappo: Those that claim Bernard Hopkins was robbed the other night in his fight with Jean Pascal, are in denial. The two most over used words in boxing are “Great” and “Robbed” . They are over used in describing a talented fighter to the point that now most fighters are great. It also seems that in every close decision now somebody was robbed.

Let’s look at why people may have felt Bernard deserved a decision. Hopkins looked great in this fight, there is no denying that point. But did his performance look that good because we are comparing it to the last bunch of stinkers he has been involved in.Or was it because of his age and we did not expect much from him. His performances up until then had us questioning where he should retire because he looked so bad. Most reports and opinions by various “experts” who watched the fight gave Pascal the first 4 rounds plus round 9. Others thought he won the first 5 plus round 9. So in doing the math that would give B-Hop a 7-5 edge in rounds or a 6-6 even number of rounds. The difference in this fight came down to the two knockdowns, so at worst if we were to use the theory that Pascal won the first 4 and round 9 then including the two knockdowns Pascal at worst would have a draw. The argument that the Canadian judging was against B-Hop is nonsense, as there was one Canadian judge who had it even, one American judge who had B-Hop by two points ( a one round difference), and a Belgium( neutral )judge who had it even as well. As far as the Canadian referee being biased against Hopkins, Bernard’s penchant for lowering his head and using it for a battering ram went without mention by the Canadian ref. Maybe a more senior or experienced ref that you would find in Vegas or Atlantic City may have viewed it differently and stepped in to prevent B-Hop from continuing to do so. Therefore in actuality the referee and his manner of enforcing or lack thereof was of benefit to B-Hop.

Hopkins in my opinion was fortunate to escape with a draw , considering he was the challenger fighting the Champion. He was fighting in the Champions home town plus he got knocked down twice in two separate rounds. I do agree that an immediate rematch should occur , but it appears that Dawson is contractually the next opponent for Pascal.There is a way for a fighter to negate the scorecards all together and that is to score a knockout or stoppage which neither did so ultimately they are at the mercy of the judges and how they interpreted what they saw..Of course some people watching the fight felt Hopkins earned the decision, while others felt that a draw was in order, yet there were others that felt based on the two knockdowns Pascal did enough to pull it out. So let’s be clear this was a debatable decision which could have gone either way , ie a Hopkins win, draw or Pascal win. A robbery would be Lewis Holyfield 1, Whitaker vs Chavez, Oscar vs Sturm. Let’s not get fooled as to the difference between a close decision , and an out and out travesty just because a promoter or fighter claim it is so.



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