* 43 year old Bernard Hopkins, 49-5-1 (32), pulled off a historic upset unanimous decision, 119-106, 118-108, and 117-109 over middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, 34-1 (30), in a non title fight fought at a 170 pound catchweight last Saturday night. For those who care, I saw it 116-110.
The fight was held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey before 11,332 fans and televised on HBO PPV for $49.95. This writer picked Pavlik to win a decision, and recommended in a column last week that viewers save their money in tough economic times.
But despite the shocking victory by Hopkins that is likely to be talked about for quite some time, I stand by my previous assessment.
Allow me to qualify that statement. If you were lucky enough to find one of those PPV parties that the suits were advocating prior to the fight and paid your fair share of $10 or less, I guess you came out okay.
Perhaps because I am just a curmudgeonly old man, I wasn’t invited to any such parties nor do I have any knowledge of them. Sometimes I wonder if the hardcore boxing fan has 5-10 friends who share his passion, let alone be willing to help pay to see boxing upon invitation. Personally I think more people were interested in Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live because I did hear people talk about that.
However, I want to learn and if you attended a PPV party, write me at mswann4@aol.com and tell me what it was like. If you took pictures, send those too.
If you are fortunate enough not to be affected by the state of the economy, then, you go bro. I guess you have the freedom to do as you choose. But maybe you should have invited a half dozen or so indigent boxing fans over for a pro bono showing. On the other hand if your family has needs and a layoff looms over the horizon, you should just be ashamed of yourself.
Remember, there will always be PPV events as long as we keep buying them. As soon as we stop, there will be no more. In the interest of full disclosure, I did purchase the event, which I justified by thinking it was in the line of duty. My local cable company had some type of glitch that prevented the high definition transmission, so I had to watch the fish bowl picture, probably my punishment.
* To further illustrate my point about PPV and value, let me say that something has to be done about these horrendous undercards that are forced on us on these PPV cards.
Right after Michael Buffer kicked of the evening promising “a night of world class boxing,” he introduced Tyrone Watson, 7-2 (3), brought in on five days notice to face highly touted Danny Jacobs, 11-0 (10), in a six round super middleweight fight.
That’s world class boxing? A six rounder? Really? I paid $49.95 for this?
To no one’s surprise, it’s lights out for Watson at 2:29 of round one.
In the most, actually only, competitive fight of the night, Mario Antonio Rubio, 43-4-1 (38), escaped with a split decision win over Enrique Ornelas, 28-5 (18), 115-113 and 116-112, with one 115-113 vote going to Ornelas. I saw it 114-114.
With his win Rubio becomes the WBC middleweight mandatory contender for Kelly Pavlik. And, as the evening played out it might actually happen now.
It was a good fight, on the level of a Boxing After Dark co-feature, but not worth paying to see at $49.95.
In the co-feature, Steven Luevano, 36-1-1 (15), won a unanimous decision over Billy Dib, 21-1 (11), to retain his WBO featherweight title. The judges saw it 116-112, 115-113, and 117-111, far closer than my score of Luevano 118-110.
Not to push the point but Luevano outlanded Dib 152 to 83.
It would be an understatement to call that fight “dull.” HBO analyst Larry Merchant was particularly sharp that evening and found the perfect quote.
“This is the kind of fight that used to give featherweights a bad name until Morales, Barrera, and Pacquiao came along,” said Merchant, who calls them as he sees them.
* Another Merchant gem was when he said that Hopkins, “did more cash talking than trash talking” for his fight with Pavlik. Each fighter earned $3 million plus PPV upside, probably less than they may have hoped.
*The fight in a nutshell — Hopkins’ hand speed and clever movement shook up Kelly as early as round two. Pavlik emerged from that round with a mouse under his eye, and was bleeding over the left brow by round seven, as Hopkins dominated the action. It was already obvious at that point that Pavlik needed a miracle to win.
Pavlik lost a point from referee Benjy Esteves in round eight for hitting behind the head, aided by some embellishment on a few occasions from Hopkins. That evened out in round nine when Hopkins lost a point for holding. It was a bad call. Not only had Hopkins not been warned but the hold was mighty tame by his standards.
Pavlik’s cut was flowing more freely by the end of that round.
His cut man, Miguel Diaz, who did a great job of keeping his cut and assorted bruises under control, gave Kelly these inspirational words to begin the 12th:
“You’re not losing your championship. You’re just losing a fight.”
At the end of round 12, Hopkins was going all out to finish his man. In fact, so much so that he continued to throw punches for seconds after the fight. The Pavlik team looked as if they were ready to rumble as they pushed their way into the ring to protect their fighter.
“Real classy,” one uttered with venom in his voice.
Obviously it wasn’t the way they planned their evening, but you sense they were glad it was over.
* Last week was a big week for blue collar guys from Ohio. Joe the Plumber made national headlines and was mentioned around 20 times in the presidential debate. According to what network you’re on, the guy is either a hero or he’s not a plumber, owes taxes and might not even be named Joe.
So my vote for the best blue collar guy in Ohio goes to Jack “The Driveway Specialist” Loew. Loew was nominated “Trainer of the Year” by the Boxing Writers Association of America for 2007 on the strength of his performance with his pupil, Pavlik.
Loew was extremely involved between rounds for the majority of the fight, but Pavlik just couldn’t deliver. More and more it became apparent that Pavlik was going to be on the losing end of a mugging.
Loew went through the playbook but had no answers for Hopkins’ superiority. Toward the end you could sense real pain in the man as he was forced to observe the beating.
Who would ever have thought that Hopkins would have been so dominant, a 4-1 underdog at 43 years of age against a power punching youth of 26? Who could foresee Hopkins landing 148 of 304 power punches, while Kelly landed 108 punches total?
And how about that Nazim Richardson? What an inspiration he is to return to his old role as chief corner man a couple of years after he suffered a stroke and pull off the victory with Bernard.
We’ll be off until next week while I work on my parole officer’s landscaping. But feel free to write mswann4@aol.com and I’ll get back to you.
Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank