Rums, you need to see the facts. B Hop throws a handful of nice solid punches each round. KP would wear the old man down & you see what he's able to do when he lands. And somehow he ALWAYS MANAGES TO LAND. The guys got skills. He's a freakin' natural! He's the true Terminator we hoped Golota would be. He'd find & catch B Hop. Thats all he does.
Hopkins is old enough to be Pavlik's daddy! If Hops decides to let Pavlik challenge him, that his business. Hops doesnt owe the ungrateful fans sh*t. He couldve stayed retired after the Tarver beatdown. I picked Hops but honestly I hope he doesnt fight Pavlik bcuz the way everybody has Pavfever if Hopkins lost i fear people wouldnt take Hopkins age into account.
Are you shittin' me? "Pavlik too slow to hit Hopkins?" Didn't you see how fast Jermain Taylor was out there, & still, Kelly managed to do what he always does...
Taylor might have the speed on Hopkins, but Hopkins has the defense, and ring smarts by far over Taylor. Pav would be getting countered like crazy.
Pavs handspeed was so slow compared to Taylors and his footwork was nonexistant, Hopkins would box circles around the stationary Pavlik. Hopkins beat the odds before by beating guys like Tarver and Tito, Hopkins has more handspeed,footwork,better chin, just as strong, been in with better competition. The only thing Pavlik has over Hopkins is power, and I dont see Pav landing much on Hopkins anyway.
Hopkins would take Pavlik apart. Pavlik showed tons of heart, but he also showed he's very hurtable and has defesive deficiencies. Hopkin's right hand will find home all night long. Hopkins will rough him up on the inside. Hopkins by late KO.
I think you grossly underestimate the incredible defense Hopkins has. Knocking out Hopkins is no easy endeavor; tiring out against him is. Maybe Pavlik could beat him, but it wouldn't be easy. Frankly, I think Hopkins outclasses him.
Before Hopkins beat right I thought anyone who had the workrate could give him problems. But Hopkins showed in that fight he could still sustain a steady volume of punches and negate an opponents workrate by simply not being there to hit or by smothering his opponents attack. Hopkins by a suprisingly one sided decision.
Just because fighter A defeats fighter B doesnt mean he beats fighter C. Hopkins takes this, just too crafty for Kelly. UD 115-113
Blind Hopkins fans! Prime for prime (and assuming that this is Pavlik's prime) I would take Kelly by a close UD. Kelly is a huge MW and we know when Hop started to fight men his size, he struggled (See Eastman & Taylor). At their primes, Kelly would simply outwork Hopkins to a clear UD. Hopkins would have his spots, and might even score a KD, but Kelly reasserts and overwhelms Hop. At present, Hopkins does not get to the 10th round: Kelly is far too young, too tough, too busy and punches too hard to Hopkins to last that long - especially now that he tends to conserve himself.
Simply put, Hopkins is too damn old. This fight would be like watching a present day Ali-Holmes. Nostalgia had alot of people thinking Ali would school one last young, somewhat unproven fighter, too. Big fighter in his prime + high workrate + concussive power= the last thing Hopkins wants to face at this stage. Hopkins, though, is too smart to fall into the "pride" trap Ali did, and wouldn't take this fight for anything less than a small country. If Kelly's people called him tomorrow about this fight, he'd probably fake an accent and say he had the wrong number, or die laughing. Or both.
This is one fight that interest me actually. Nevermind Pavlik's power and youth, he won't be able to KD Hopkins that's for sure. And I really like to see Hopkins fight an aggressive strong puncher/boxer. I hope Hopkins give it another try. He can surprise all of us. His power is being underratted IMO, but i think he can be effective against Pavlik.
Simply reply that makes no sense from my point of view... Holmes took Ali when he was fading fast and had only what I would call rope a dope chances whereas Bernard is still training hard, has the legs and the punch, is in impressive physical condition and always has that ex-con man kinda attitude or else he wouldn't call out Joe Calzaghe, the birth certificate doesn't come to the equation when you train hard for a single 12 round performance tomorrow or the day after. Both Joe and Kelly are proven fighters and if the Youngstown gunslinger is in his prime, it doesn't make B-Hop retreat or back off from any BIG payday. Again, there's no pride issue here, it's all about big doe and showbiz... If Joe doesn't come fast to lose his airplane fobia, Kelly has everything the old timers Winky, Bernard, Tito and RJJ look for - he has a world title, he is undefeated and he doesn't have their guile and skills - Bernard doesn't give anybody the indication that he'd foresee defeat but truth be told, Winky and Taylor are likely to get there first.