Hopkins Rearranges the Race: BoxingScene Pound for Pound Top Ten
By Cliff Rold
With the latest feather in the cap of an exceptional career, former World Middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins enhanced his place as a rare living legend still able to do things to extend his legend. The way he did it, by not only defeating the current Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in a non-title catchweight bout on October 18th, but by defeating him in each of the individual twelve rounds, may well have been the greatest win ever for a fighter aged 43.
There is a proven wisdom in the game’s elder observers ever warning not to rate a man’s career before it’s over. New developments in the form of big wins have a way of recasting perspective. Such is the case with Hopkins. The win over Pavlik not only enhances his legacy; it puts a whole new spin on his last four bouts…leading to the question of how the spin affects the pound for pound race.
