by David P. Greisman
This old man,
he just won,
he beat Kelly Pavlik
via unanimous decision.
With a brilliant clinic
straight out of his past,
Bernard Hopkins left Pavlik
completely outclassed.
There are those who offer talk and vitriol. And then there are those who deliver statements and messages. Bernard Hopkins has long excelled at both.
This was the man who had donned an executioner’s mask and feigned slitting his throat just before entering the ring. This was the man who had grabbed a Puerto Rican flag in front of a large crowd of Felix Trinidad’s compatriots and thrown it to the ground. This was the man who had played mental games with many an opponent, who never hesitated to go nose-to-nose or verbal blow for verbal blow.
This was the man who would do all that and then win.
Yet in the weeks before his fight with Kelly Pavlik, there was none of the typical bluster.
Perhaps it was the three defeats in six fights, close, controversial decision losses all, two against Jermain Taylor and one against Joe Calzaghe. Each he thought he won, but in each he chose frugality over physicality, moving his hands far less than he had done his mouth.
Perhaps the unusual silence merely meant utter confidence.
There are those who offer talk and vitriol. And then there are those who deliver statements and messages. Bernard Hopkins saved the former for one brief confrontation at the pre-fight weigh-in. The latter would come one day later.
Pavlik, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, had risen to prominence largely on the strength of his fists full of steel. He had knocked out Edison Miranda, knocked out Jermain Taylor, knocked out all but four of his 34 foes. Against Hopkins, he ended up foiled.
As he had done with so many before, Hopkins worked from the opening bell to take away that which his opponent does best. Pavlik sets up his shots behind a double jab, moving forward and looking for opportunities to unleash a powerful straight right hand.
Hopkins consistently moved to his own right, doing so with enough speed and science that he would quickly be out of reach of Pavlik’s leads, leaving Pavlik far too out of position to land his follows. At other times Hopkins would dip down and to his right after Pavlik’s second jab, taking away any target that had previously been available.
But Hopkins didn’t just beat Pavlik with footwork and head movement. He did it with hand speed, too.
In his losses to Taylor and Calzaghe, Hopkins had succeeded in making his opponents effective with little, but he’d failed to sway the judges because when it came to activity he had done less.
Against Pavlik, Hopkins still didn’t fight all 180 seconds per round. Not that he needed to. Yet there was noticeable energy to go along with his normal efficiency, as he moved in and out, pot-shotting Pavlik with speedy combinations.
“I knew that my style and my quickness were underrated,” Hopkins said afterward. “I was just looking to lead and then counter, and then lead and counter, mix it up a little bit. I’d seen I confused him early on.”
Hopkins threw more shots than Pavlik in all but three rounds, threw more power punches in all but four. He started determined and ended dominant, hitting Pavlik with 24 of 48 power punches in the final round. Pavlik, whose trainer, Jack Loew, never altered his advice of doubling up the jab, could only muster eight power punches, landing just two.
Pavlik averaged just nine landed shots per round for the whole fight, including less than five power punches on target per three minutes. He hit double digits in punches landed per round just four times. Hopkins, in contrast, did so in 10 out of 12 rounds, averaging more than 14 landed punches per three minutes, a number that included an average of more than 12 power shots.
After appearing to fade down the stretch against Calzaghe, many had thought Hopkins, at 43, had finally reached the end of his Hall of Fame career. Some had even predicted that a man who had never been stopped and had only twice hit the canvas wouldn’t see the end of the Pavlik fight.
He had been counted out in thoughts. There was no way he would be counted out in reality.
“Ninety percent of the media … had a poll that I would lose the fight, and a lot believed that I would get knocked out. Yes, I got talent, but it’s the naysayers, I need them,” Hopkins said. “If I don’t have them, I wouldn’t fight to the best of my ability. I need to have people against me. Not that I want it. But as long as I’m in the hurt business, I’ve got to have it.”
The former undisputed middleweight champion defeated the current undisputed middleweight champion, a man 17 years his junior whom some had believed would be stronger at the 170-pound catch-weight, less drained from dehydrating his 6-foot-2 frame.
Hopkins was far from finished. And perhaps he is still quite a distance from done.
“I’ve been playing it safe because of my age. I feel if I could win it in the driver’s seat with the seatbelt on, then why not?” Hopkins said. “But I know what the fans want. They pay me a lot of money to risk myself. I want to pick it up. You’re going to see me stepping it up. Whoever I fight now, I’m going for the knockout.”
There are those who offer talk and vitriol. And then there are those who deliver statements and messages.
Bernard Hopkins has long started fights with his excellence of elocution. He has ended far more with the excellence of execution.
The 10 Count
1. As noted in a previous column, sometimes I listen to Lennox Lewis’ commentary and replay it in my mind in Emanuel Steward’s voice to see if what Lewis said sounded dumb but was actually quite astute.
Last night, I had to turn things around.
This gem from Steward at the beginning of an undercard bout between Marco Antonio Rubio and Enrique Ornelas:
“This fight could end up being a knockout, or I could even see it going the limit, too.”
Thanks, Manny, I think that took care of almost all of the possibilities.
2. On a side note, many thanks are due to the HBO commentators for their wit during the featherweight snoozer between Steven Luevano and Billy Dib. Jim Lampley, Emanuel Steward and Larry Merchant were the Joel, Crow and Tom Servo that, for 45 otherwise excruciating minutes, turned HBO pay-per-view into Mystery Science Theater 3000.
3. This week in apparent hypocrisy: Consistency is the hobgoblin of Golden Boy Promotions.
Oscar De La Hoya’s company recently signed junior-middleweight prospect James Kirkland despite a potential lawsuit from promoter Gary Shaw, who claims that he still has rights to the undefeated 24-year-old fighter.
But when it comes to proposed fights between Nate Campbell and Golden Boy lightweight stars Juan Diaz or Juan Manuel Marquez, company executives cite pending litigation from promoter Don King over Campbell filing bankruptcy, thereby revoking his contract with King.
Richard Schaefer, chief executive officer for Golden Boy Promotions, told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com that he “spoke to both Diaz and Marquez, and both are willing to fight Nate. But the legal situation has to be cleared up first,” Rafael told one of his weekly online chatters.
So if it’s a young fighter who can come in and potentially earn your company a bunch of money, it’s fine. But if it’s an experienced veteran who is capable of defeating two of your top guys, well, it’s best to wait.
4. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Evander Holyfield could go from the ring to another small four-sided spot.
The former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion owes $4,500 in lawyer fees to the mother of one of his 11 children, who had taken “The Real Deal” to court earlier this year for late child support payments, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Holyfield was also supposed to set up a college trust fund.
Both items had a deadline of Sept. 1. Neither has happened yet, nor has Holyfield paid for the child’s private school tuition.
The woman’s lawyer is expected to ask at a court hearing scheduled for this Wednesday that Holyfield serve jail time.
Holyfield, who turned 46 on Oct. 19, last fought a year ago, losing a unanimous decision to then-heavyweight titlist Sultan Ibragimov. He has been reported as a possible opponent to current beltholder Nicolay Valuev.
Holyfield is 42-9-2 with 27 knockout victories.
5. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Former featherweight prospect Paul Halpin remains in jail after being arrested earlier this month and accused of dealing drugs, according to southern England newspaper The Argus.
Halpin, 34, was taken into custody after what police described as a lengthy investigation. He was charged with money laundering and dealing class A drugs, which in Great Britain could mean cocaine, crack, ecstasy, heroin, injected amphetamines, LSD or mushrooms.
He is being held without bail.
Halpin began his pro career in 1997, capturing a regional title two years later. But the turn of the century saw him fighting far more sporadically. He last appeared in the ring in June 2007, winning a six-round decision. His record currently stands at 13-1-1 (5 knockouts).
Halpin spent two-and-a-half years behind bars as a teen, according to the article.
6. Boxing Journalist Behaving Badly update: Week two of the trial of a former boxing photographer accused of being a serial killer focused on some of the earliest shootings – the summer 2005 deaths of “at least two horses, a dog and a 20-year-old man,” according to Arizona newspaper the East Valley Tribune.
Dale S. Hausner, 35, whose work occasionally ran on a well-known boxing Web site, was allegedly one of two men connected with a 15-month shooting spree in and around Phoenix that ended with eight people dead and left 20 more wounded. He was arrested in August 2006.
Hausner pleaded not guilty to all 83 charges, which range from eight counts of first-degree murder to one count of arson. If convicted, he is facing the death penalty.
A former roommate of Hausner’s who has pleaded guilty to two of the murders is expected to testify as a witness for the prosecution. Hausner’s older brother, Jeff, is set for court in a stabbing case allegedly carried out with Dale and the former roommate. Jeff Hausner is currently in prison for a separate stabbing.
Court proceedings hit a strange moment one day last week when, according to newspaper reports, the lights went out, leaving the windowless room completely dark until two guards pulled out flashlights and shined them toward where Hausner was sitting. But at first the guards didn’t spot Hausner, who was not handcuffed and was wearing street clothes.
“In the darkness, Hausner reached out toward one of the lights,” the newspaper reported. “ ‘I’m right here,’ he said. About 30 seconds later, the lights came back on.”
The trial is expected to run into next year.
7. Time to get a pet peeve off my chest. Boxing publicists work tirelessly to hype fights and fighters and they do even more behind the scenes. Much of the stuff they release is quite creative or funny. But those of us in the boxing media need to know better when it comes to using some of the quotes from press releases.
For example, this line was attributed to Kelly Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, on Columbus Day last week: “Bernard is going to discover on Oct. 18 that his new world really is flat … flat on his back. Kelly has had his best training camp ever and he is ready to shiver Hopkins’ timbers from stern to stern.”
Quite funny. Quite creative. Not actually Jack Loew – not that several Web sites indicated otherwise.
Ace publicist Fred Sternburg is also the author of my favorite press release. Prior to Groundhog Day and Jeff Lacy’s fight with Joe Calzaghe, he came out with “Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Lacy Victory.”
8. That didn’t take long.
Just days after Vitali Klitschko returned from a 46-month layoff with a decisive victory over Samuel Peter, the new World Boxing Council heavyweight titlist called out a man who hasn’t fought since June 2003.
“Whether or not I am going to continue my sports career, I am not ready to give a definite answer,” Klitschko was quoted as saying in a press conference in Ukraine, according to reports. “There must be a motivation in any business, a motivation for further fights. If I defend the title, these fights must be a drive, give motivation to prove that you are the strongest.
“If Lennox Lewis makes this decision [to fight], with all my pleasure I will give this opportunity to Lewis, to myself, and millions of spectators,” Klitschko said.
Lewis’ last appearance in the ring was a slugfest win against – you guessed it – Vitali Klitschko. Vitali has spoken repeatedly of a rematch since.
Lewis, mind you, is now 43. Then again, Jeff Fenech and Azumah Nelson fought earlier this year, 16 years after they had last faced each other, at a combined age of 93.
9. That wasn’t even the worst thing to come from Vitali Klitschko last week.
For some reason, Vitali felt it prudent to reveal to German media that after fights he treats his swollen hands with, um, wet diapers.
“Baby wee is good because it’s pure, doesn’t contain toxins and doesn’t smell,” Klitschko was quoted as saying. “I wrap nappies filled with my 3-year-old son Max’s wee around my fists. The nappies hold the liquid and the swelling stays down.”
Looks like Roy Jones Jr. won’t be the only fighter getting a fist bump from Jim Lampley instead of a handshake.
10. On second thought, that last entry should have gone under number one.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com