I picked Hopkins to win a close UD. I figured he would gas at the end after winning say the first 7-8/10 rounds and Pavlik would take over... This was not the case,
I called a Hopkins UD, back when I was still sporting a Pavlik avatar. There are very few master boxers in the world, Hopkins is a master boxer. It takes a master boxer to beat a Master boxer, or someone with complete physical freakishness like Jermain Taylor who was able to just keep throwing. Hopkins will still beat 99% of the fighters out there.
I called it for Hopkins winning an SD here: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2666564#post2666564 The only thing I was wrong was the end result. I never expected B-Hop to thoroughly dominate Pavlik like he did last night. Simple because I thought Kelly would still be the same Kelly that we knew and would trouble B-Hop with his workrate, pressure and power punching. And also because I thought B-Hop would lose stamina in the mid-rounds enabling Pavlik to nick some rounds. On B-Hop winning however, I think I had a fairly good prediction on how he would do it.
I called a Hopkins UD as soon as I heard the fight was signed. I can't see how so many got blinded by the hype.
I called it almost 100% spot on. Not bad for a 'newbie'. Here: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97024
That's a quote from a thread I started the other day. As soon as the fight was made I picked BHOP and I never wavered. I haven't seen much of his career, only the Eastman and Calzaghe fights in their entirety. I made my pick entirely based on how highly I rate Calzaghe, I figured if Hopkins could make it that hard for Calzaghe he had too much for Pavlik.