By Rick Reeno

Aside from being stunned at how easily Bernard Hopkins handled Kelly Pavlik over twelve rounds on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, my eyes and ears were in disbelief as I saw, and heard, Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant make numerous comments about Top Rank's decision to match Pavlik against Hopkins.

Both Lampley and Merchant saw it as poor decision making on the part of Pavlik's team, and his promoters, for putting him in the ring with Hopkins, instead of some contender at the middleweight level.

"I think they got greedy. He's 26-years-old. There is no reason for them to fight Hopkins because even if you beat him - you are not going to look good," Merchant said. "I thought all along, at 26-years-old, there is no reason for him to pick this fight because there was more money than fighting some contender. They went for the money."

"100-percent" was the reply from Lampley, showing his full agreement with Merchant's comments.

At around the eleventh round, Lampley would state "it's a fight Kelly Pavlik didn't have to take. There is a $3 million dollar guarantee for both fighters, plus a bonus from pay-per-view, but I suspect that the pay-per-view numbers won't provide it. Cold comfort for Pavlik, the money that comes from this."

Most who spoke to me about the fight, know that I wasn't thrilled to see Pavlik get matched with Hopkins. I saw too much risk, and too much to lose, with Pavlik moving up by ten-pounds to fight a 43-year-old fighter. I didn’t see a huge upside if Pavlik won, and I saw a big downside if he lost

I don't think that any individual at HBO has the right to criticize Pavlik's choice of fighting Hopkins, instead of some contender. Both Lampley and Merchant conveniently left out some key details during their on-the-air criticism.

A. Top Rank and Pavlik's management wanted to fight "some contender," but HBO turned down half a dozen names like Allan Green, unbeaten Joe Greene and Marco Antonio Rubio.

B. They, being HBO, practically forced Pavlik into a fight with Hopkins. Hell, HBO even reshuffled a few of their fall events when switching Pavlik’s return from September 27 to October 18 in order to make a pay-per-view fight with Hopkins possible. Bernard was one of the few names HBO would approve. Paul Williams, Winky Wright and Arthur Abraham being three others that I know of.

C. Because Pavlik’s September bout was originally scheduled to take place on the network’s World  Championship Boxing series, the amount of money being offered by HBO was not enough for Top Rank to reach an agreement with Williams or Wright.

In the big scheme of things, Golden Boy, who promote both Hopkins and Wright, were more interested in matching Hopkins against Pavlik, and wanted Wright to face Paul Williams. Abraham had a scheduled mandatory with Raul Marquez, which left Hopkins as the only direction for Top Rank to go, and the only name that HBO would absolutely have no issue with.

Notes:

I know Merchant is presently riding his high horse over pitching the hypothetical idea of Manny Pacquiao fighting Oscar De La Hoya at 147-pounds - and now the fight is an actual reality.

I wonder if Merchant and Lampley will criticize Pacquiao for moving up in weight by two divisions  to “go for the money” by taking the fight with De La Hoya. Will they criticize Pacquiao in the same way as Pavlik for fighting De La Hoya instead of some contender like Juan Manuel Marquez or a dozen other formidable opponents in the lightweight division?

If I was a betting man, and I am, I would bet the house that we don’t hear a peep from either of them during the De La Hoya-Pacquiao pay-per-view.