By Cliff Rold
How hyped was the packed house for Pavlik-Hopkins?
So hyped that instead of booing they mostly just ignored what may have been the worst fight ever shown on an HBO Pay-Per-View, Billy Dib-Steven Luevano. Luevano, usually an entertaining fighter, was in a worst case scenario with nothing to do about it but wait for it all to end. Billy Dib just wasn’t going to engage. There were mixed boos throughout, and cynical applause at the end in a backhanded thank-you for it finally ending.
Many fans complain about mediocre undercards they’ve been asked to purchase; the fight was worse than anything most had pondered in previous complaints. The other featured undercard bout between Marco Antonio Rubio and Enrique Ornelas was solid stuff, but sitting through twelve rounds of Luevano-Dib between it and the main event was a torturous experience.
Yet, to the live crowd, it didn’t really matter.
What wasn’t happening for the previous hour was immediately forgotten as Pavlik and Hopkins were shown on the screens above the ring. The crowd, made up largely of Pavlik fans with a healthy Hopkins contingent, was buzzing, and then chanting, building to a crescendo as the main event approached. It was a crowd and atmosphere every bit as electric as those once reserved solely for Atlantic City icon Arturo Gatti.
Following a rousing, unique take on the national anthem, the lights went down and Pavlik entered the ring behind a waving American flag. As the echo built with each step towards the ring, it was clear Kelly Pavlik the star had arrived. The even louder boos for Hopkins cemented it further. It said, “Everyone in the world might not know it yet, but the hopes for a new American superstar just exploded in Boardwalk Hall.”
The opening bell had still not sounded.
The naked emotion of the moment swept the room in a wave before it did, finding even veterans along press row applaud in the wait for it all to get underway. The room fell to a brief hush as the two fighters met at ring center to receive instructions and then the roar built again.
Then, finally, the bell…
And the arrival of Pavlik walked head on into one of the greatest fighters of all time looking every bit of it, making fools of everyone who picked against him, this scribe included; more than fools, making a mockery of the notion. For literally minutes after the bout, he stood staring down at the Boxing press who’d largely picked against him and the image of a bowed mass seemed appropriate.
The Pavlik faithful watched the man they’d come to jeer deliver a performance that made Floyd Mayweather’s 2005 mastery of Gatti in this same building look like a close fight. Before the bell even sounded for the final round, a trickle of Pavlik fans were already hitting the exits and chants of “B-Hop” rang out as the old man went for a knockout after not losing a single round.
He didn’t get the knockout.
It didn’t matter.
Let’s go to the report card.
Speed: Tell me again which man was 43? It wasn’t just superiority in speed Hopkins possessed...it was a vast canyon of difference. Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO) got off first from bell to bell, round through round, never caught by more than one shot at a time in return. Pavlik (34-1, 30 KO) looked stuck in sand, setting to throw and eating counters instead. Hopkins employed similar tactics against Felix Trinidad in 2001, but even then Tito had efforts in the sixth and tenth rounds where he appeared almost in the fight. Pavlik, in the seventh round, was worked over with a volley of offense that let everyone know the best he could do was survive. He wasn‘t in and he wasn’t going to get there. Pre-Fight Grades - Hopkins B; Pavlik B/Post-Fight: Hopkins A; Pavlik C
Power: Hopkins stunned Pavlik in the second round and repeatedly the rest of the way. His right hand could look to some like it never missed and only punch stats would indicate it did occasionally. In the seventh and twelfth, Pavlik appeared ready for the floor but, to his credit, he stayed up. What he did not, could not, do was land any of the vaunted power shots he needed in combination to make a miracle happen. The miracle was happening to him instead. Pavlik retains hammering fists but, if they don’t land, they can be of no good. Pre-Fight Grades - Pavlik A-; Hopkins B/Hopkins B+; Pavlik B
Defense: Hopkins was his usual masterful self on defense; what made this performance so much more spectacular than those in recent years was the rebirth of offense behind it. He didn’t just block, roll, slip and parry...he countered defensively as well, throwing when Pavlik intended to prevent offense. Pavlik defended better than it may have seemed; he blocked the left hook well in the second half of the fight and smothered enough shots to avoid referee’s count. It’s perhaps his lone bright spot on the night. Pre-Fight Grades - Hopkins A; Pavlik B/Hopkins A+; Pavlik B
Intangibles: Hopkins inspired awe in Atlantic City. This category, tonight, need not concern itself with the fight itself or what Pavlik showed. Pavlik will be back. He’ll find a war, probably with someone like Arthur Abraham, and with a win he’ll remind fans that they can still count on him for bit of violence and the star will grow again. Tonight though, Hopkins turned back the …oh the hell with that cliché. He kicked the clock off the wall and pissed on it. Any lingering doubts about Hopkins, about whether he is truly one of the greatest to ever lace gloves, in any weight, at any time, should be erased. Years past his prime, Bernard Hopkins was the same as he ever was on his best day and that meant Pavlik was asked to fight a man who would have given even Ray Robinson hell. No contest. Pre-Fight Grades - Hopkins A; Pavlik B+/Post-Fight: Hopkins A+; Pavlik B+
The post-fight press conference was all Hopkins as it should have been. Hopkins explained how his game plan had been to force Pavlik to his left and throw his right thrown across his body; Hopkins indeed did just that. He spoke of the respect he feels he’s earned and the motivation he took from the doubters.
He also spoke about the winner of Roy Jones-Joe Calzaghe, going so far as to say he’d be willing to go overseas to avenge the loss to Calzaghe and that he’d like to have the long talked of rematch with Jones “before I die.” Much is written about aging fighters these days and their refusal to bequeath the stage, but after a night like this age is irrelevant. Hopkins earned the right to avenge one of the losses he has to the two men who square off November 8th and whichever rematch emerges would sell.
Hopkins was asked what he would have said if someone had told him the chance existed, after their first fight in 1993, that Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins II could potentially be one of the sports richest fights in 2009. He said he wouldn’t have believed it; that he’d have said someone saying that had “invested in bad stock.”
Asked jokingly in follow up if there were any good stocks left these days, Hopkins said he thought he might have one.
He’s right of course.
He has Bernard Hopkins.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
