Yeah ten rounds to stop a former light heavy who was 27bs lighter. Hopkins, Tarver, Moore eat your heart out
Yeah if we're assuming Liston was in his forties, which many say he was, the guy was one serious ass kicker.
I picked Hopkins, as he was the first guy Pavlik had fought who possesed any time of lateral movement. I watched the HBO countdown and Naseem said two very intresting things. 1. 'When you know a guy brings a big gun, you know what type of vest you need to bring. 2. Will Kelly Pavlik stay true to form, when the target isn't the same? I also factored in the 10lbs difference in the fight weight limit, and got this one right. Making up for my colossal clanger in picking DLH over Pacquaio a month later :-(
Yep and. Hopkins: What are we gonna do with that big right hand, Naseem? Naseem: Put it in the same drawer we put Trinidad's left hook in. I admit that I picked Pavlik coming in but when I watched the countdown, I asked myself what does Kelly have that Ex hasn't seen before? I started to hedge my bets after that but still went with the younger man. Hopkins was astonishing!
That seemed staged for the cameras to me! I have that countdown on my laptop, love it :good Hopkins right at the end : I have to change his mind about winning, and that's where the fight starts. Exactly what he did! Pavlik had beat Maidana, who my mother could get a connect percentage of more than 50% on. Jermain Taylor who was drastically over hyped. (I have a page long opinion on this so I'll spare you) Taylor was very straight up, no great pretence of defence or upper body movement. And finally the Great Gary Lockett :-( Nobody to prepare him for Hopkins. Pavlik is in Hopkins top 5 wins for me, maybe top 3.
Its an asuumption but based on a book I read about the fights between Ali and Liston (The boy who would be king and the ugly bear, great read) its pretty damn probable
To be fair though, who do you fight to prepare for Hopkins? Kelly and his entire camp, like may people, assumed that Ex was done because he'd lost a few close decisions. I fell into that trap myself and I consider it one huge **** up If the fight had happened four or five years earlier I would have picked Hopkins in a New York minute. The man is a genius and one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.
The level of opponent renders the argument irrelevant I'm afraid. Doesn't come close to Bernard's performances.