Perfect Build Up Behaviour from B-Hop

I must admit I was surprised at Bernard's demeanour in the build up to the Pavlik fight...at first it seemed that he was genuinely concerned about his chances and gave unprecedented respect to Pavlik, talking up his power, youth and future accordingly...very different to the usual aggressive behaviour we have seen in the past. In retrospect, he played a perfect mind game...emphasing his own "apparent" short comings and highlighting Pavlik's strengths he was able to convince the young fighter and his camp that they could win by stoppage and would outpower the older man using the same blueprint that has been effective against smaller fighters in the middleweight division. He effectively lulled him onto a false sense of security and then sprang the trap from the wearing of the mask to the hugely energetic and impressive start to the fight. Pavlik and his camp walked into the trap and Bernard was able to fight exactly as he pleased for the whole 12 rounds...with much superior timing and ringmanship easily outclassing the younger man. B-Hop stated that he had seen something in Pavlik which he could exploit...i think he saw a more than one thing...a basic textbook fighter who is exceptionally big and strong for middleweight but not particularly skilled or mobile. A fighter who has not had anywhere near the experience of Bernard and has not been the distance with a number of diffferent opponents and with different styles...a fighter who relies on a limited number of effective combinations and a reliance on a big right hand...and a fighter who did not show evidence of speed or immense stamina which seem to be the key to competing with B-Hop. I can't help but think about a clip I saw yesterday when B-Hop was watching some VT replays of Pavlik, and said to his camp "what are we going to do about that big right hand"...its almost as if he was goading Pavlik to focus on this punch knowing that he could easily take this punch out of the equation. Bernard and his camp from about round 2 on were emphasing all of this in the corner between rounds..."he's confused" and "he's right in front of you all the time" was mentioned on many occasions and they kept urging B-Hop to keep boxing and resist the temptation to jump in for a finish. I dont think there was any doubt that they felt they were in complete control once 5-6 mins of boxing had taken place. On the other side, Pavlik's corner could only muster "throw the f_cking double jab" at the end of every round. Pavlik himself said that what worked on 99% of fighters just did not work with B-Hop... I feel sorry for Kelly and think he should definitely stay at middleweight were his natural attributes of power and size will still allow him to be a force. He was not ready to move up a weight but he comes across as a genuine guy and I sincerely hope that with his young age he could progress skill wise and move up say in 6 or 7 years when he is more ready... On a side note, this reinforces my feeling that to transverse weight classes a fighter has to have immense technical skill, ringmanship and experience. Examples include B-Hop himself, Roy Jones and Floyd Mayweather...boxers with less ability such as Hatton and Pavlik just seem to get found out when power and brute force are taken out the fight by skilled boxers... Roy is doing the same thing with Calz. it works too

Reading over some of the pre fight quotes, I saw this one from Nazim Richardson...right on the money "What I expect and what I’ve seen so many times with Bernard Hopkins is before, during and after, the conversations, the man before the young, like I said, I see (unintelligible) in these shoes before, so the world couldn’t believe what a young, undefeated puncher was doing to everybody. And then, afterwards, you know, they saw that turnabout. And I’ve come to expect that again. My thing is this, after the fight, I won’t lose any respect for Kelly Pavlik. Because, like I said, I was known for the simple fact he’s never fought anyone like Bernard Hopkins. And I’m pretty sure the world is going to offer that cushion to Kelly also. But, like I said, I’m not going to get into a pissing contest and make it sound like I don’t have respect for this guy. I have respect for him and his trainer because we come from the same fraternity. Any trainer that I knew traveling to those amateur tournaments and motel rooms and sometimes the kid went home the first night, I respect for it, because they took that same walk and I walk that walk. So, I have respect for Jack and where this young athlete has landed him. But at the same time, this is the job we do, this is the business we chose. So, come Saturday, I expect for my athlete, like I said, the Bernard Hopkins that I know, when he shows up in this particular aspect and the position and the physical condition that he’s in, I mean, he’s very hard to deal with and it’s even more of a burden for a young, inexperienced kid. So, that’s what I have to lay my hat on and we have to work behind that".

Cortez was poor but I still think that Mayweather was outboxing Hatton from Round 5 on... Being British I was desperately willing on Ricky but I was losing faith as the fight went on...Floyd wins more convincingly every time they fight IMO Round 6 on. Anyway, the meaningful shots that Hatton took in R1-6 came as a result of Cortez needlessly breaking them up every two seconds and Hatton then stupidly jumping in. Partly Hatton's fault but it wouldn't have happened if Cortez hadn't been jumping in every 2 seconds. He also let mayweather away with a gross amount of illegal tactics like ducking down, throwing forearms, turning his back etc

Cortez was poor but I still think that Mayweather was outboxing Hatton from Round 5 on... Being British I was desperately willing on Ricky but I was losing faith as the fight went on...Floyd wins more convincingly every time they fight IMO

I feel sorry for Kelly and think he should definitely stay at middleweight were his natural attributes of power and size will still allow him to be a force. He was not ready to move up a weight but he comes across as a genuine guy and I sincerely hope that with his young age he could progress skill wise and move up say in 6 or 7 years when he is more ready... Don't feel sorry. He's a world champion, multi-millionaire who sleeps with super-models and its not like he was knocked out. On a side note, this reinforces my feeling that to transverse weight classes a fighter has to have immense technical skill, ringmanship and experience. Examples include B-Hop himself, Roy Jones and Floyd Mayweather...boxers with less ability such as Hatton and Pavlik just seem to get found out when power and brute force are taken out the fight by skilled boxers... perhaps, but in Hatton's case, it was a crooked referee not a lack of skill. He'd have battered floyd if the ref didn't rush in to protect floyd and allow his illegal ducking down tactics.

It worked...I am going to have to look back over the build up footage cos I got the impression that Bernard was playing games ever since this was announced... There are probably plenty of telling quotes...from both camps...

IMO I think he wanted Pavlik to think he was done and underestimate him. Hopkins wanted Pavlik to think that he was going to KO him so Pavlik would have no idea that Hopkins would fight like he did.