Pavlik vs Hopkins Oct. 18

Hopkins is going to retire with a very impressive list of names on his resume, win or lose.

 

And Hopkins will scream robbery and make yet another disgraceful scene at the post-fight press conference.

 

Just like he did against Tito and Tarver, Hopkins will shock everyone, and make it look easy.

 

The Hopkins that beat Tito is GONE, and will never resurface again! That fight was 7 years ago for Christ sake! Hopkins is a shell of the fighter he was in 2001.

And Tarver was an easy fight for Hopkins cause Antonio was just waiting on one punch. Pavlik will keeping busy, and forcing a pace that a 43 yr old Hopkins wont be able to keep up with. I cant see how Hopkins has ANY chance in this fight. Like I said before, Roy has a chance of upsetting Calz, but Hopkins has no chance in this fight against Kelly.

 

I'm not.

WAR EXECUTIONER!!! :kidcool:

 

X I have to disagree with you.

I'm a huge Jones fan...but Hopkins has a much better chance of beating Pavlik than Jones has of beating Calzaghe.

 

I really don't see the easy win for Pavlik that others are predicting here. Not be a long shot.

Kelly will start the favourite, and rightly so, with the smart money will be on him establishing himself in the centre of the ring, working Nard behing that ramrod jab, looking to set up the heavy straight right hand, especially late on as his high punch and work rate take their toll on the aging Hopkins, especially late on when stamina becomes an issue.

If it happens anything like that, I'll be very surprised.

Hopkins has become arguably the most eye bleedingly awful boxer to watch in the professional game. As age has taken its inevitable toll on his skills, he has managed to remain competative with P4P elite guys, despite his advancing age, by becoming the most horrible fighter in the world. Hopkins, you can state with certainty, will look to foul, to spoil, to butt, to clinch, to slooooooooooooooooooow rounds down to a snails pace, to retreat to the back foot looking to set single, hard right hand counters, to make the gap between the two men negligable and to lean on and sap the strength out of Kelly- all with the simple aim of making sure that Pavlik fights in a way he doesn't wish to.

I'm pretty sure he'll be successful, too. I remember confidently predicting on these very pages that Calzaghe, an experienced, wily and intelligent operator throwing tons of punches per round, would be able to fight at his range and pace throughout. Although Joe won that fight, he looked pretty clumsy in doing it and certainly didn't fight like he usually does. He probably threw less punches in that fight than he has done in any other, ever. Hopkins succeeded in spoiling, closing the gap, clinching often and frustrating Joe at every opportunity.

If Calzaghe (and may, many others over the years) can't fight like he usually does against Hopkins, why will Kelly Pavlik be able to?

There are other issues, too. Pavlik is completely untried at this catchweight of 170, whereas Bernard has campaigned with success between 160-175. Even Kelly's greatest fans would admit that Pavlik is hittable, and for all that Hopkins hardly throws any shots any more, he has enough timing and power to dent Pavlik's chin if he catches him cold (as he did Calzaghe). Also, arguably Pavlik's major strength, the power in his straight 1-2, is far from proven at any weight above 160. I just can't see him KO-ing Hopkins unless he really CAN impose his will throughout and drains Nard's stamina so much that late on he is able to tee off at will.

This is gonna be one ugly, ugly fight, where Hopkins makes Kelly look worse than anyone has or will again. I was gonna go right against the grain and pick Hopkins to win a controversial decision, but then I saw that D-MAN was picking Hopkins and changed my mind... ::

So, Kelly will probably be able to work his way to a decision, but it will be close and it will be an absolute insomnia cure.

Mark my words...

MTF :bangh:

 

IF pavlik wins in an impressive fashion, he would be my pick for fighter of the year.

 

No-one beats old man Hopkins in impressive fashion...

If Kelly did, it would be a greater achievement than everything else he has done in his entire career to date.

 

Big Surprise. Rooting against the white guy. :stir:

 

Time has to catch up with the old bastard sooner rather than later, but I learned a long time ago not to rely solely on this when considering a B-Hop fight... ::

He was really struggling late on for stamina, on that you are right. But by that time, the tone of the fight had been completely established, and even when he was tired and struggled, at absolutely no stage did Joe look like he was really putting the hurt on or threatening to knock out Bernard. And Joe is a naturally bigger guy that Kelly Pavlik.

Like I also said, I'm far from convinced that Kelly carries his pop to higher weights. In the Taylor rematch at 166, he caught Jermain flush on a number of ocassions but couldn't budge him, whereas he KO-ed him at 160. He didn't look quite as concussive with that extra weight to carry.

So with even more weight, there is a considerable unknown IMHO.

MTF

 

::

Honestly Z, that was the EXACT thought that popped into my head when I read that post. The EXACT (as in 'to the very word) thought...

MTF ::