Not saying that I personally feel Pascal will be stopped late, but does anyone this might be Hopkins first KO in a long time? Trying to promote some intelligent discussion more or less. From the Tarver fight on in 2006 Hopkins has almost exclusively fought fighters with rock solid or very good chins. I hear people say he hasn't KO'ed anyone in so and so many years, but I haven't seen the fact brought up that he's fighting people with good jaws. :think Wright, Pavlik, Tarver, Calzaghe... None of them have any been stopped. Hopkins did drop Calzaghe & Tarver, and has hurt most his opponents to one degree or another in the recent years. He also hurt Pascal to the body and head. Gassing at the half way point of fights (Pascal) with Hopkins coming on strong at the end of the first fight... Just makes me wonder if Hopkins is going to be hell bent on a stoppage to avoid any kind of decision shenanigans. Many think Dawson was on his way to stopping Pascal late as well, and just like Hopkins, Dawson is not a fighter who takes many chances, but he still was likely to pull it off. Take those multiple knockdowns out of the equation, Hopkins utilizing more bodyshots, fighting less cautiously because of a lack of knockdowns... I suppose I give him a slight chance of a stoppage. Thoughts?
If Pascal can knockdown Hopkins twice, you'd think he has a chance, but let's put it this way. Hopkins had another 8 or 9 rounds to fight back after being put on the canvas, and took control of the fight. Now, the second time around, Hopkins is gonna have even more of an idea what to do even earlier in the fight. I believe you have a two round window where Pascal can knock Hopkins out, that being the first two rounds, but outside of that, I don't see him knocking Hopkins out. It's more likely Hopkins will knock out Pascal in the later stages of the fight, but knowing Hopkins is getting older and hasn't recorded a knockout in years, and Pascal is probably going to come in the fight with a better tank (it won't be significantly better though) and already has a great chin, plus he has already fought Hopkins and took him at his most pushed, I doubt it. I think it's going to the cards.
I'd say anything is possible, and Hopkins MIGHT try to be more aggressive. But as I remember this fight, and which I do pretty well, it seemed to me that Pascal was the stronger fighter in there. The beginning of that fight got me worried, and maybe I was just worried throughout the fight. It appeared to me that Hopkins was wary of Pascal's punching power. The last round they both began throwing bombs, but I thought Pascal had gotten the better of it. That's just my opinion, and I'm not a Pascal fan, but I don't know if Hopkins will really go in for a kill if he gets dropped by Pascal again. He confessed after his beatdown of Kelly Pavlik he didn't go in for a stoppage that was there for the taking, because he wanted to be careful. Just based on past performances I would think if he gets dropped or even stunned again, he may remain cautious.
I don't think Pascal is going to have better stamina this time around. If anything it'll be the same or worse, what with him supposedly trying new drastic training techniques. Fighters don't change like that, and Pascal has a decorated history of stamina issues at this point.
I don't mean it'll be anything special, I just mean he won't sag quite as much as he did in the last Hopkins fight. He'll fight harder.
If he fights harder (Which Hopkins can negate regardless, as he has with almost every fighter he's faced in the last several years) won't his poor stamina be an even larger issue?
I mean, he'll be more focused and less inclined to just pipe down and let Hopkins overtake the fight. I think he'll stand the ground more, this fight is more important than it was the last time. I'm not saying he'll go the distance without effort, but he may not let Hopkins dictate the fight so soon and will give a better showing of himself. But I could be wrong, Hopkins is one of the most, if not the most, experienced vet around and he has been in there with him already for 12 rounds so he might just start lighting him up from the get go. I don't mean he's gonna try and throw bigger bombs or more often, just that he isn't gonna sag quite as much.
