Just watched Tito-Pernell Whitaker again and I think tomorrow's fight really mirrors this fight in several facets. 1. Defensive genius, CLEARLY past his best against a WARRIOR who is probably the best finisher in the game right now. 2. Will BHOP go out on his proverbial "shield" like Pernell did and fight like a warrior (even though Sweet Pea wasn't knocked out, his jaw was broken and that was the ONLY fight in his career where he had that look like "I can't beat this guy tonight")? 3. We ALL know that 5-10 years ago BHOP would wipe the floor with KP, much like the scenario where we know Sweet Pea would have befuddled Tito in his prime. 4. I gained so much ADDITIONAL respect for Sweet Pea that night and if solidified his greatness to me that night actuall on an ALL TIME level. Will BHOP do the same? Thoughts:think
No, Hopkins is going to hold constantly, try to get in illegal low blows on the opposite view of the ref, and i'm sure he will try really hard to get in a head butt.
Hopkins is going to do his best John Ruiz imitation in this one. It will be ugly and somewhat close and Hopkins is going to ***** about it to Kellerman after the fight. Guaranteed.
U guys are probably right, but in retrospect, I just think that in the Whitaker fight, he actually elevated his status TO ME, by just saying "**** it," I'm gonna fight this guy, it's the ONLY way I'll keep him off me, but we'll see.
after getting tko'd hopkins is gonna say he still won the fight because he was blocking kellys punches with his head and body. he'll then ask kellerman to show the replay to prove his statement. and when he fell to one knee he was actually looking for his contact lense
But that's not the Hopkins way. I would love to see the "Executioner" of him come out but if he does that, he simply gets outpointed even worse as he will have nothing left in the gas. He's going to do what he has to do to give himself the best chance to win and that's to pull a John Ruiz imitation again.
There's a couple of key differences here: 1. Hopkins is probably the slightly bigger fighter here whereas Pea was really dwarfed by Tito. 2. B-Hop isn't as far gone as Pea was. If past fights are any indication, B-Hop will still be in reasonable fighting shape. 3. Hopkins will opt to stink the fight out at every opportunity as has has done for the last 5 years. Sweet Pea was always an active fighter, even if he wasn't out right agrgessive. Just look at some of his welterweight fights, they are all action packed. Hopkins is now a crafty cagey spoiler, and will remain so in this fight. Even if he boxes the **** out of Pavlik and hurts him severely he won't go for the KO.
