Hopkins won’t be able to clinch and flop his way to decision against Pascal

By Boxing News - 12/16/2010 - Comments

Image: Hopkins won’t be able to clinch and flop his way to decision against PascalBy Jim Dower: If 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) wants to walk away with the World Boxing Council light heavyweight title belonging to champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 17 KO’s) on Saturday night, Hopkins is going to have to actually fight Pascal at beat him by laying leather on him and not grabbing, holding, wrestling and flopping around on the canvas while looking at the referee to take points away from his opponent.

Hopkins has become predictable in the kinds of tactics he uses to eke out wins in the past couple of years, and it’s worked for him but it hasn’t been pleasing to the eye. It may keep Hopkins in the fight by slowing down the action with his clinching and wrestling, but he’s going to have to do better than just slowing the fight down to a more manageable level if he wants to beat Pascal in Canada.

Pascal will be the home fighter, which means that Hopkins can’t just come in and look to spoil and limit the punch stats by holding. He’s going to have to let his hands go and show that he’s the better man in an actual fight, not a wrestling match. Hopkins has always been a great fighter on the inside, but he’s become more of a wrestler in the last few years, and it’s a style that is tough to beat if you play into his game.

This is style that heavyweight John Ruiz used for most of his career to beat heavyweights with better power, size and hand speed compared to him. However, Hopkins probably won’t be able to count on getting a win in Pascal’s home city by holding and slowing the action down.

Hopkins needs to be busy the whole time and show that he’s not an old man, and that he can fight hard without falling down on the canvas, and looking at the referee when he’s hit with shots that he considers to be fouls. Pascal won’t stop fighting, as he has great stamina and will be looking to outwork Hopkins in this fight.



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