by David P. Greisman
Time is not timeless, for a man must ultimately run out of it, exhausting a finite amount of next years, next chances, next times.
The Bernard Hopkins of 45 years and 337 days had decelerated more than he had deteriorated. He had been defeated but had never been demolished. He was definitely – and defiantly – not done.
Against a man nearly 18 years younger, it was Hopkins who was stronger down the stretch, the fresher fighter later.
Against a man who was the light heavyweight champion, 15 pounds heavier than Hopkins was in his own prime atop the middleweight division, it was Hopkins who was the intimidator.
And against a man favored by better than two-to-one odds, it was Hopkins who made the bout even.
Even. That’s how the fight was after 12 rounds – a majority draw, with one judge scoring the action 114-114, another judge seeing it 113-113, and the third favoring Hopkins over Jean Pascal by a 114-112 tally.
The Bernard Hopkins of 45 years and 337 days had overcome disadvantages in age and power, had overcome two early knockdowns that put him at a disadvantage on the scorecards, had overcome the odds and the expectations and the laws of nature.
A man less than a month away from turning 46 should be nearing closer and closer to his midlife crisis. A boxer less than a month away from turning 46 should be moving farther and farther away from a life segmented into 10-week training camps and three-minute rounds.
Hopkins long ago proved himself to be no ordinary man. He had reformed himself after serving time in prison, had dedicated himself to boxing, had lived a controlled lifestyle, being frugal with his money, disciplined with his diet, and constantly set in his goals and what had to be done to attain them.
He had long ago proved himself to be no ordinary boxer. He had won a world title belt in 1995 and defended it successfully for the next decade, winning 19 times, becoming the undisputed middleweight champion in a tournament that had been created for another fighter to win, and holding onto that recognition until he was 40.
He had been 41 when he jumped up two weight divisions to challenge light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, winning easily. He had been 43 when he defended that championship against the best 168-pounder in the sport, Joe Calzaghe, losing to him controversially. He had been three months away from turning 44 when he dismantled Kelly Pavlik when nearly no one expected him to win.
And he was less than a month away from turning 46 when he stepped in the ring with Pascal, a fight nearly no one expected him to win at a time when nearly no one felt he should still be fighting.
Though Hopkins had turned back time against Tarver in 2006 and against Pavlik in 2008, time seemed to be working against him. He was no longer one to fight for the full three minutes in a round or for all 12 rounds in a fight.
Rather, he took his time, as frugal with punches as he had been with his money, a minimalist who turned first to defense to negate his opponents and only then would go on offense to pick his opponents apart one punch at a time.
Barring the Pavlik fight, this meant plenty of moving and clinching and grabbing and fouling. It was not aesthetically pleasing, but it was effective. His only losses in the past 16 years had been a pair of controversial decision defeats against Jermain Taylor in 2005 and the split-decision loss to Calzaghe in 2008.
Since losing the middleweight championship to Taylor, he had beaten Tarver and Winky Wright. Since losing the light heavyweight championship to Calzaghe, he had beaten Pavlik, Enrique Ornelas and Roy Jones Jr.
In the win over Jones, Hopkins had complained dramatically about punches to the back of his head, what looked to be taps and slaps, albeit taps and slaps to a vulnerable area. Hopkins had collapsed in the dressing room following that fight, and Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Hopkins’ promotional company, Golden Boy Promotions, had subsequently said that Hopkins should retire.
And none of those men Hopkins had beaten of late had posed the kind of challenge Jean Pascal was sure to provide.
Pascal is an unorthodox mix of power and speed, a fighter who can be drawn into battle with the likes of Carl Froch and Adrian Diaconu, a boxer who can stay at a distance before leaping forward with the kind of hard lead shots that can keep an adept boxer such as Chad Dawson wary.
It was that combination of skills and physical gifts that caught Hopkins in the early rounds of the fight. Pascal landed clean left hooks and right hands over Hopkins’ jabs, and then, toward the end of the first round, Pascal put Hopkins down on the canvas for the first time since a draw with Segundo Mercado that too place on Dec. 17, 1994, 16 years ago, nearly to the date.
With Pascal on the ropes, Hopkins had squared up and shoe-shined and failed to see the right hand that looped around and hit him behind his right ear. Hopkins fell forward, caught off-balance and by surprise. Unhurt, he rose immediately.
Hopkins would go down again in the third round. This time it was Hopkins whose back was on the ropes. Pascal shifted to his right – Hopkins’ left – and threw a left hook that Hopkins never saw. Again, Hopkins was shocked but not stunned, and he got straight back up.
Pascal had won the first three rounds, knocking Hopkins down in two of them. Boxers can grow old during a fight. It seemed as if age was finally catching up with a man who had so often defied it. It seemed as if Hopkins was finally up against an opponent he couldn’t negate.
But Hopkins had taken the best of Pascal, and Pascal had yet to take the best of Hopkins.
Hopkins adjusted to Pascal’s offense, which while unorthodox is not unpredictable. He continued to make Pascal miss, and he began to make Pascal pay. Hopkins hammered away with hooks to Pascal’s body, countered with quick, straight, sharp shots, and made Pascal realize that he had to respect both the man in front of him and what that man was sending at him.
That respect might’ve saved Pascal from damage, but it would be to his detriment. Pascal would send out three-dozen punches or fewer in each of the first 11 rounds, averaging just 27 punches thrown for every three minutes in rounds one through 11. He landed in single digits in rounds one through 10, hitting Hopkins with five, four, five, eight, nine, two, three, seven, eight and nine. It was an average of six landed punches per round, two per minute.
Hopkins, meanwhile, threw an average of 39 punches in rounds one through 11. And in rounds one through 10, he hit Pascal with eight, seven, six, 14, nine, 10, 17, eight, 15 and 14. It was an average of more than 10 landed punches per round.
Pascal had started strong. Hopkins would finish stronger. In rounds 11 and 12, Pascal would go 12 of 31 and 14 of 47, while Hopkins would land 24 of 56 and 21 of 69.
He won more rounds in the eyes of all three judges, but he would not win the fight.
The early knockdowns had put Hopkins into a hole. After six rounds, he was down four rounds to two on a pair of scorecards, while the third judge had three rounds to Pascal and three to Hopkins. But two judges had punished Hopkins for the knockdowns in both rounds one and three, scoring those stanzas 10-8 for Pascal. The third judge had scored the first round 10-9 and the third round 10-8.
Hopkins would have to come from behind to win. All three judges had him winning five of the last six rounds. It would not be enough, not with the 10-8 rounds, and also not with Hopkins’ minimalist style. While Hopkins was not clinching and grabbing and fouling as he had done so often over the past several years, and while Hopkins was throwing and landing more than Pascal was, there was still little enough action at times that some of the rounds could be deemed as close enough to create differing opinions.
Indeed, the judges only agreed on a winner in six rounds, and one of those rounds, the first, had judge Daniel Van de Wiele score the action 10-9 for Pascal rather than the 10-8 tally put forth by the other judges. Van de Wiele also saw the 10th round as an even 10-10 when his colleagues saw the round 10-9 for Hopkins.
The draw would allow the champion, Pascal, to retain his title.
Hopkins was stronger down the stretch. He had intimidated an opponent who had youth and power on his side. He had finished even against the betting favorite, overcoming the odds and the expectations and the laws of nature.
He had not won the light heavyweight championship, and he had not become the oldest-ever champion.
And he will have to wait for another chance.
Pascal had won the championship in August against Chad Dawson. But in order to get that fight, Pascal had to grant Dawson a rematch clause. Pascal was allowed one optional defense in-between bouts.
It is Pascal-Dawson 2 that will be next, not Pascal-Hopkins 2.
Hopkins will be many months older when he gets another shot – if he gets another shot. Man will ultimately exhaust a finite amount of next years, next chances, next times.
The Bernard Hopkins of 45 years and 337 was still an ageless wonder. Time is not timeless, however, and Hopkins will eventually run out of it.
The 10 Count
1. Boxers Behaving Badly update: What would you do if you had a warrant out for your arrest? If it was for a major case, you might celebrate your last night as a free man. But for a relatively minor case, you’d turn yourself in, right?
Not if you’re Floyd Mayweather Jr.
With a warrant out for his arrest for a misdemeanor battery case – a case in which Mayweather is accused of poking the face of a security guard who left parking tickets on one of Mayweather’s vehicles – Mayweather went to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, according to the Associated Press.
He was spotted there, arrested and spent a night behind bars.
It could’ve been worse, of course. He could’ve tried to escape in a white Ford Bronco.
Mayweather is also facing several felony and misdemeanor charges for another case, one stemming from an alleged incident involving his ex-girlfriend and their sons. When a warrant had been issued for his arrest in that case, he turned himself in.
2. Let’s put aside, for a moment, the case of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s finger vs. Random Security Guard Dude’s cheek. Instead, let’s take a second look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Hulk Hogan.
The topic? This note from last week’s column: “Hogan outnumbers Mayweather in WrestleMania appearances, 12 to 1. But Mayweather, to his credit, is catching up with Hogan when it comes to the number of negative articles about him on TMZ.com.”
I decided to check out the statistics, and, well, I was wrong.
While I didn’t break down which articles were negative and which articles were positive (how often is a tabloid website appearance a positive one?), here’s what the stats show:
So far in 2010, there have been 25 articles relating to Floyd Mayweather Jr. on TMZ.
Hulk Hogan’s only had 15.
3. Considering the category, though, I don’t know if either guy should be proclaimed a “winner.”
4. Why did the Showtime broadcast repeatedly mention that Pascal-Hopkins was for the World Boxing Council’s light heavyweight title yet never note that the fight was also for “THE RING” magazine’s championship?
For the casual viewer, which is more beneficial: knowing that a fight is for one of four major sanctioning body belts, or knowing that a fight has even more significance than that?
5. With five days until Christmas, your loyal scribe gives to thee:
Five More Boxers Behaving Badly!
Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Willie “The Cannon” Shannon is a retired cruiserweight whose boxing career began after a nine-year stint in prison for robbery. After his boxing career ended (he was 18-2-1 with 14 knockouts), Shannon had a 13-year prison stint for kidnapping and battery.
Now he is a 60-year-old who could spend the rest of his life in prison, charged with killing a woman 29 years ago, all of the above according to the Las Vegas Sun. Investigators believe the woman, who was 18 years old, was killed because a family member of hers had allegedly ripped off Shannon for $27,000 in a drug deal.
6. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Australian heavyweight John Hopoate, apparently working as a bouncer at a hotel, was arrested and charged with assaulting a group of people that he had refused to let inside, according to The Daily Telegraph. One victim was critically injured and in the hospital with head injuries.
Hopoate has been charged with “assault occasioning bodily harm and affray,” the report said. The 35-year-old is 12-5 with 11 knockouts, his last fight being a March disqualification loss.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly, part three: Dean Anderson, a 23-year-old British featherweight prospect with a 2-0 record, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and fined for having 68 marijuana plants in his home, according to the Birmingham Mail.
He was able to avoid a longer sentence, however, by convincing the court that the marijuana was wholly for himself and not to be sold or distributed to anyone else.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly, part four: Keely Thompson, a retired boxer who once lost to Sharmba Mitchell, is facing criminal charges for allegedly taking money that had been given to his nonprofit boxing/youth center, instead using it for himself, with much of it gambled away in Atlantic City, according to Washington, D.C.-area news site TBD.com.
Thompson is charged with writing more than $355,000 in checks from his organization to himself. The 45-year-old was 17-9-2 (12 knockouts) as a pro fighter.
9. Boxers Behaving Badly, part five: Brian Coleman, a retired 41-year-old Brit who had a stellar record of 24-141-7, has avoided jail time but has been fined for twice filling up his gas tank without paying, and, on one of those days, also stealing two CDs from the gas station shop, according to the Birmingham Mail.
Coleman did so despite having a suspended sentence from a prior case, meaning an arrest could’ve led to him serving that sentence out. He’s been ordered into a drug rehab program.
10. Don’t know what’s more amazing: Bernard Hopkins at nearly 46 years old, or Chuck Norris being 70.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.
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