General Hopkins vs. Private Pavlik

To all of the naysayers, I hope you watched the fight between 43 year old Bernard Hopkins and 26 year old Kelly Pavlik. It was truly a lesson in boxing skills and ring generalship. Although Hopkins dominated the middleweight division for so many years the critics really counted him out in this fight. He was too old, too slow and too defensive to win against a steam-rolling Pavlik, that was not going to have his record blemished by old man Hopkins.

It was a very good fight for Bernard. He even surprised me with his aggression against Pavlik. Bernard was not his normal self, fighting defensively and mainly counter-punching. He went after Pavlik and although there was a little bit too much holding for my likings; (both boxers had 1 point deductions for holding and hitting) it was still good to see a veteran boxer profile his skills and teach the youngster that experience still counts for some things. Bernard Hopkins won this fight handedly with a unanimous, 12 round decision over Kelly Pavlik. I'm not sure what's next for Hopkins, but I would only like to see him in one more fight. And that fight would be against Roy Jones Jr. one of my favorite fighters. :) Then they both can retire, no matter who wins. And Kelly Pavlik at age 26 still has the world in front of him. I hope this loss doesn't discourage him. He is a very skilled boxer and the loss to Bernard will hopefully ground him a bit and give him a little more focus and move forward.