Ageless Hopkins dominates Pavlik

Freddy Roach advised Bernard Hopkins to retire after a split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe in April of this year. Kelly Pavlik wishes “The Executioner” had taken the advice of his former trainer and never showed up at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday night.

With all due respect to the boxing expertise of Roach—who only had BHop’s best interests at heart after observing that his fighter had looked disoriented at several points during the Calzaghe fight—Hopkins sure didn’t look like a “washed up pug” hanging on too long against Pavlik. The 43 year old not only beat his 26 year old opponent, he dominated him en route to a lopsided unanimous decision victory. The judges’ scorecards clearly underline Hopkins mastery of his younger opponent, reading 117-109, 118-108 and 119-106.

To put Hopkins’ performance in perspective, it ranks among the best ever by a fighter past the age of 40 up there with George Foreman’s heavyweight championship win over Michael Moorer . Not to diminish the performance of either fighter, but for “golden age” excellence the conversation has to begin and end with “The Old Mongoose” Archie Moore. “The sweet science” will never again see the likes of Moore, who defeated Joey Maxim for the middleweight title at age 49 and held it for nearly a decade. Since some fight historians have theorized that Moore may have actually been older than he claimed, it’s within the realm of possibility that he won the title in his early 40’s and defending it into his early 50’s.

Still, in an era where fighters like Floyd Mayweather retire in their early 30’s with millions in the bank Hopkins is a verifiable throwback to an earlier time. After the fight, an emotional Hopkins once again displayed the mental toughness and “underdog mentality” that carried him from a prison stint for armed robbery to a career as one of boxing’s all time great middleweights:

“I'm tired of proving myself. I could box another two to three years. I think this was my best performance -- better than Tarver, better than Trinidad, better than Oscar [De La Hoya]. I am extremely happy tonight. Ninety percent of the media picked Pavlik. I always appreciate naysayers. That is what motivates me -- when people are against me. I don't wish I was like that, but that's the way it is."

For his part, Kelly Pavlik had no excuses, but no explanations either. He suggested that the move up in weight had made him uncomfortable, but aside from that sounded dumbfounded when asked to explain the one sided loss:

"I just couldn't get off. I don't know why. It was not his slickness. I just couldn't throw a jab, a double jab. I couldn't do what I was used to doing. We'll go back to the drawing board. It just wasn't me tonight. I will be more comfortable going back to 160."