By Jake Donovan
It was supposed to be youth versus experience, offense versus defense and in the end, Kelly Pavlik’s further development as one of the rising young stars of the sport.
In the end, nothing was as it seemed, as 43-year old Bernard Hopkins once again defied father time, as the former middleweight king dominated the current one in a 170 lb. catchweight bout Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Pavlik promised to not allow Hopkins to slow the fight down to a crawl. Hopkins promised a more spirited performance than has been the case in recent fights. Both lived up to their word in the early going, though with little in the way of successful offensive results.
Hopkins opened up early, working his jab but often falling short with his follow up right. Pavlik fought behind a high tight guard, sticking his jab in Hopkins’ face and landing right hands, but nothing to force his iron-chinned future Hall of Fame opponent to take notice.
Trainer Jack Loew demanded that Pavlik double up on his jab if he was to have any offensive success, but student failed to oblige teacher in round two. Hopkins was beating Pavlik to the punch, throwing right hands to the body behind an effective jab of his own.
Pavlik struggled to find his rhythm, and also struggled to stay on his feet late in the round after getting clipped with a Hopkins uppercut. A quick exchange of rabbit punches drew dual warnings from referee Benji Esteves.
The double jab still wasn’t existent in Pavlik’s repertoire, though he jumped out a quicker start in the third round, landing a left hook seconds in. An attempted follow up resulted in the first of several clinches to mar the first half of the round.
As has been the case in oh so many Hopkins fights of past, the tactic was effective in nullifying Pavlik’s attack, allowing the old veteran to regain control midway through the round, landing left hooks upstairs and giving Pavlik little opportunity to return the favor.
Things slowed to a crawl in the fourth round, though not by design. As was the case for most of the fight, Pavlik failed to cut off the ring, allowing Hopkins to roam as he pleased and forcing his younger foe to follow him around. With the round in the balance, Hopkins shoe shined his way down the stretch, flurrying to the body while Pavlik landed nothing of note.
The best two-way action of the fight took place in the fifth. Pavlik finally let his hands go, though took plenty of return fire for his troubles. A right hand midway through the round gave Pavlik hope that his power punches would eventually cause damage, though Hopkins was still outworking the Youngstown native 17 years his junior. It was more of the same in the sixth, though a rare round in which Pavlik outlanded Hopkins according to Compubox numbers.
The theme was the same in between every round – Loew imploring Pavlik to double up on his jab. Pavlik still elected to ignore it as the second half of the bout was underway, though his late surge in the sixth motivated him to throw his hands more.
Hopkins spent much of the seventh round going in reverse, fighting a strictly defensive battle through the first two minutes before waking up down the stretch. The crowd came alive as Hopkins landed a left hook then wound up and landed a right hand, bolo-punch style.
A telling conversation took place in between rounds seven and eight. Loew gave his usual speech and also demanded that Pavlik give more. The fighter could only offer a soft spoken apologetic response: “I’m trying, Jack.”
To his credit, he tried harder in the eighth, with his jab finally finding its way to Hopkins’ grill. The only problem was, nothing was coming behind it. Things went from bad to worse for Pavlik, who lost a point late in the round for holding and hitting after repeated warnings earlier in the fight.
Pavlik began the ninth with a double jab and a long right hand, as if to suggest he was finally ready to test drive his trainer’s advice. It didn’t last very long, as Hopkins’ shocking hand speed advantage was the difference on nearly every exchange. A moment of reprieve came for Pavlik late in the round, when Hopkins was docked a point for excessive holding just before the bell. The infraction coming as Hopkins locked up Pavlik’s left arm and threw a left hand, headbutt combination.
The legions of fans that made the long trek from Youngstown briefly came alive after Pavlik connected with a flush right hand midway through the tenth, but it would end as a singular moment. Very little of note occurred in either direction, as well as in the 11th round, the first time in the fight where boo birds began to surface.
Hopkins could’ve conceivably stood in a corner for the entire 12th and final round and still won the fight walking away. Instead he heeded the advice of head trainer Nazeem Richardson, who insisted that his fighter maintain the real estate. Hopkins did that and then some, repeatedly tagging Pavlik upstairs, including a round and fight ending flurry to put an exclamation point on perhaps the finest performance of his legendary career.
The bout ended with Hopkins throwing and landing, and then nearly shoving referee Benji Esteves aside in efforts to go after Pavlik some more after the bell. The two camps jawed at one another until order was finally restored, at which point Hopkins stared down the media section, many of whom predicted this to be the final act in his career, and not in a good way.
To put it blunt, we were wrong. We were very, very wrongs. Scores of 119-106, 118-108 and 117-109 were an emphatic reminder of just how wrong we were.
Hopkins, on the other hand, lived up to every pre-fight promise he made. He fought at a much busier pace than in recent past fights, beat Pavlik to the punch all night, and by fights end looked like he was ready to go another twelve rounds.
Judging by his post-fight interview, he’s ready to go more rounds in 2009 and beyond.
““I’ve been playing it safe because of my age, but I know what the fans want,” said Hopkins, who improves to 49-5-1 (32KO) with the win in his first fight since losing a stinker of a split decision to Joe Calzaghe earlier this year. “Justifiably so, I wanted to pick it up. Whoever I fight now, I’m going for the knockout.”
It’s been more than four years since Hopkins saw any fight end inside the distance, though he dealt a major blow to many beyond the ring with his throwback performance Saturday night.
“90% of the media, according to (Golden Boy CEO) Richard Schaefer said that I’d lose the fight, with many believing that I’d get knocked out. It’s the naysayers – I need them. If I don’t have them, I won’t fight to my “best ability. I need to have people against me.
“Sometimes I pick fights.”
He already started picking his next fight.
“I will fight Roy (Jones); I will go to England to fight the Welshman (Joe Calzaghe), especially if the dollar is higher. But wouldn’t the people here love to see me beat Roy Jones,” Hopkins would ask the capacity crowd on hand.
Much of the pre-fight talk had Pavlik walking through Hopkins and being next in line for the winner of next month’s battle between Calzaghe and Jones. The preceding twelve rounds dramatically changes that dynamic.
“It’s back to the drawing board,” admitted Pavlik, who falls to 34-1 (30KO) in suffering the first defeat of his professional career. Despite boasting a considerable advantage in youth and power, neither was even a slight factor in this contest.
“He didn’t fight like he was old. With his movement and everything, I just couldn’t get off. I felt like a sub-novice fighter tonight.”
With that, he plans to return to a familiar place – middleweight, where he still reigns as lineal champion, with this bout having taken place at 170 lb.
“We’re definitely going back to 160, we have the titles there. It’s only one loss; a lot of great fighters have (more) losses.”
Bernard Hopkins has five of them. Saturday night, he added to the growing belief that he’s greater than most fighters that ever graced a boxing ring.
TELEVISED UNDERCARD
Top featherweight Steven Luevano returned to his winning ways with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Australian contender Billy Dib in the evening’s co-feature.
The bout was every bit as boring as many had feared would be the case. A lot of hype has been made of Dib’s affinity for emulating his hero, former lineal featherweight champion Naseem Hamed, but the only area in which he successfully replicated was in trash talking.
Scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 were closer than expected, though it’s doubtful that anyone paid enough attention in the ring to really dispute the cards. Most important was that they got the winner right, which in fact was Luevano, who improves to 36-1 (15KO).
It was the fourth successful defense of his alphabet featherweight title, all coming in a span of just over one year, fairly active by today’s standards. The win extends his unbeaten streak to eight straight, though he entered this bout coming off of a spirited draw against Mario Santiago this past June.
Dib watches his 0 go out the window, falling to 21-1 (11KO). A member of Golden Boy Promotions and a protégé of Shane Mosley, it’s doubtful he’s permanently exiled to Australia anytime soon, though it can be said that it will be quite a while before he receives a prime showcase such as this.
Marco Antonio Rubio is now the mandatory challenger to one of Kelly Pavlik’s alphabet titles, thanks to his hard fought split decision win over Enrique Ornelas.
Momentum swung back and forth in a bout that mostly took place at center ring and featured few clinches. Ornelas controlled the action, relatively speaking, in the first half, landing the crisper blows in addition to being the busier fighter.
Rubio started to come on the in the second half, fighting well enough to keep things close before taking over the in the final two rounds. Ornelas was on wobbly legs late in the eleventh before being saved by the bell. Both fighters came out throwing in the final round, but Rubio was the much fresher fighter and dominated down the stretch.
One card had Ornelas winning 115-113, but was overruled by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 for Rubio, who improves to 43-4-1 (37KO). The win was his ninth straight, though a seven-fight knockout streak was snapped the moment Ornelas crossed the finish line.
A three-fight win streak comes to an end for Ornelas, who falls to 28-5 (18KO). A bizarre statistic: Ornelas, whose brother Librado Andrade challenges Lucian Bute next week for a super middleweight alphabet title, has never lost a fight that went eight rounds or less, but has yet to win a fight that’s extended beyond that point.
Brilliant middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs opened up the telecast with a first round knockout of Tyrone Watson. A pair of knockdowns came via body shots, not a bad choice of weaponry for Jacobs, considering Watson, a last minute replacement, was only two weeks removed from a one-sided beating at the hands of Fernando Guerrero.
Jacobs, who turned pro last December, cruises to 11-0 (10KO), scoring his 7th first round knockout. Watson falls to 7-2 (3KO), both defeats coming this month.
The show aired live on HBO PPV and co-promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions.
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.