By Mohammed Aba: On March 9th one of the greatest middleweights to have ever laced up the gloves will be facing a young, determined, undefeated champion. Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins the rugged Philly boxer has already cemented his legacy in the books as the oldest boxer to win a legitimate title, and also the only boxer to hold four world titles simultaneously.
Hopkins of course is no stranger of being an underdog either, as he was against Tarver, Calzaghe, Pavlik, and Pascal. In those four fights losing one controversially he silenced his critics by putting on a clinic showmanship on Tarver, Pavlik, and Pascal. Now again he is the underdog against the 17 years younger Tavoris Cloud.
Tavoris Cloud has two advantages going into this fight power, and youth. However, Cloud has shown many weaknesses and one weakness that really stands out is he does not do well under pressure. Gabriel Campillo really exposed Cloud in one of the major robberies of boxing lately. The southpaw style of Campillo caused many problems for the orthodox Tavoris, and also the punch output of Campillo. Tavoris needs to get rid of Hopkins in the early rounds if he wants to win this fight, otherwise Hopkins seems to get the steam engine rolling in the later rounds and as Tavoris seems to be gassing out in the later rounds.
One question that hovers over this fight is can Hopkins still do it at the age of 48? Hopkins did not look like his old self in his last fight against Dawson, but that does not mean he should be counted out against Tavoris. Hopkins needs to use his 25 yrs of boxing experience, as well as some rough house tactics to come out victorious. Many critics may not like Hopkins style of boxing, some may even call it dirty but whatever the outcome is on March 9th Hopkins will always be remembered as one of the greatest middleweights to have ever stepped in the ring.
Thank you for reading, please comment as I like to hear your points of views on this fight.
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