By Scott Gilfoid: 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) is poised to make history on Saturday night when he takes on and beats WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In beating the 28-year-old Pascal, Hopkins will erase George Foreman’s record from 1994 of being the oldest fighter to ever capture a world title.

Foreman was 45 at the time he stopped Michael Moorer in the 10th round. Hopkins is now on the brink of fame, as he’s definitely going to break Foreman’s record and have his name written in the history books. Hopkins is a heavy favorite to beat Pascal. Hopkins arguably already should be the World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion after facing Pascal last December in a fight that was ruled a 12 round draw.

Other than a couple of flash knockdowns earlier in the fight, Hopkins dominated Pascal for the remainder of the fight and proved to be the much better fighter of the two. However, the bout took place in Canada, where it’s often hard for visiting fighters like Hopkins to win decisions over the local fighters. In this case, Pascal, a transplant originally from Haiti and now living in Canada, was the local fighter. As such, Hopkins had to settle for a 12 round draw in a fight that I had him winning by a lopsided decision.

Don’t look for a knockout on Saturday. Hopkins doesn’t knockout many of his opponents since moving up to light heavyweight. He tends to pound out his decisions and give his opponents a brutal beating in the process. Hopkins said this about Pascal about Saturday’s fight: “It would probably be better for Pascal to get knocked out than take a 12 round beating. We know that most of the young fighters that were in the ring with me more than eight to ten rounds weren’t the same after that.”

Yes, Hopkins is right. It would be better off for Pascal to take a 10 count rather than let himself get beaten up by the more talented Hopkins. Pascal will only end up taking more punishment ultimately by resisting and fighting back. He’s better off being knocked out. That way the pain will be over quickly.