What the hell was wrong with Pavlik in the Hop fight?

Bernard beat the pink out of his panties, that's what happened.

I called this fight from the beginning (one correct prediction out of my many failures) in that BHop's age was what won him the fight.

Pavlik was fed with guys who would exchange with him...no one REMOTELY like BHop...he never had a chance.

 

Pavlik couldn't find him with the jab, because Hopkins circled to the right.

Pavlik couldn't get set, because he can't cross over with his feet and Hopkins exploited it all night long.

Pavlik is a good champion at middleweight. He has tremendous flaws, but we knew that already. They aren't easy to fix, mostly his lack of coordination.

The tradeoff is what he does right -- pressure, stamina, determination, punch resistance, disciplined gameplans.

Hopkins could neutralize it just by taking away his jab and tangling his feet, but its easier said than done. Pavlik is still the man at middleweight.

 

Bhop would be a safe guess to why Pav looked the way he did. Sure Pav could have done better but even his best would have been short with the Nard that showed up that night. At this point Pav is just a bad style match up for Nard...he has some offensive and defensive holes that are going to need tweaking should he face anther crafty ring vet like Nard...and as young as Kelly is he'll be able to. Kelly style is a hard style for most to face...nard is the excpetion. I expect Kelly to improve and move along as he was prior to the Bhop loss.

 

It's very simple.

Unless the 40+ version of Hopkins fights someone with an insanely high workrate, he wins. He is a Master Boxer.

He was more skilled than Taylor or Calzaghe, but at 40+ he cannot match their workrate, and these days workrate = points.

Tarver, Wright and Pavlik do not have the same workrate, thus Hopkins's skills win out.

Pavlik was in the ring with a vastly superior boxer. There is no mystery.

Put Pavlik back in the mw division against non-masters, and he'll be a wrecking ball again.

 

Pavlik's one dimention got exploited as did his one dimentional trainer.