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Kelly Pavlik vs. Bernard Hopkins: The Ghost vs. The Executioner
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Bert Sugar, the legendary boxing hall-of-fame writer, was interviewed on WTAM (1100AM) yesterday about the boxing match in Atlantic City at 9:00 tonight between Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik and Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins. However, neither Pavlik's WBO or WBC world-champion middleweight belts are on the line since the fight takes place at the 170-pound class. Sugar said that Las Vegas has Pavlik as much as a 4-1 favorite to remain undefeated. Although Sugar believes that Pavlik will win the fight, he thinks that it will be by a narrow decision as the fight will go the distance.
Hopkins (48-5-1, 32KOs), a former world champion, who turns 44 in January, is very confident, as usual. At least, that is his public image. You would be hard pressed to ever find a professional fighter who didn't think he would win. In an interview with Bernard Fernandez of the Philadelphia Daily News, Hopkins said, "I'm still a dangerous fighter for anybody. In my heart of hearts, I believe the last time I lost was when I fought Roy Jones, Jr. in 1993. There are thousands of people- heck, millions of people- who thought I won both fights with Jermain Taylor and the one with Joe Calzaghe." Hopkins trainer, Nazim Richardson, echoes his fighter's bravado. "I don't know their game plan, but at the start, Kelly is going to realize that he's in there with a legitimate fighter."
Pavlik (34-0, 32KOs), is 26 and just coming into his prime. Kelly, the pride of Youngstown, Ohio, respects Hopkins, but isn't going to change his always-attacking, always-punching style of boxing despite his trainer Jack Loew saying that Kelly will be "cautiously aggressive." Kelly is aware that Hopkins has never been knocked out or stopped, and only knocked down twice in his long career. "I mean he's never been stopped. How good of a chin does he have? He's got great defense, but he's got to keep up at a price. His defense will lapse a couple of times and we got to take advantage of that. He's never been convincingly beat, but after watching the Calgzaghe fight, I think I can definitely go in there and win this fight convincingly."
When Kelly takes Hopkins out, probably, in the later rounds, a lot of observers will say he was supposed to win over an old man like Hopkins. The end of the fight will probably make Joe Calzaghe and Arthur Abraham (IBF middleweight champion) a little more nervous to agree to take on "The Ghost."
In his interview yesterday, Sugar made a back-handed comment about the city of Youngstown when he said that the last person to leave (Y-Town) should remember to turn the lights out. Sugar knows nothing about Youngstown, its economics or the people, except for the world champion boxers that come out of the city. He's partially right, though, implying that someone in Y-Town should turn out the lights because it's a ghost town. Except, Youngstown is "The Ghost's" town and he will be turning the lights out on Hopkins.
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