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October 18 was a night to remember. This was the night that the 43 year old dangerous veteran Hopkins has silenced all critics. That night was just really a youth versus veteran here.
Pavlik came into the fight at 26 years old with an undefeated record of (34-0-0 30ko's), while Hopkins came into the fight at 43 years of age, now with an outstanding record of (49-5-1 32ko's).
These two outstanding fighters stepped into the ring, and surprisingly, Hopkins was taking control of the fight in the first round with amazing hand speed and combinations. The first round went very well for Bernard. Since that round, when Pavlik was in trouble, the crowd was yelling KELLY, KELLY, KELLY. But as Hopkins was battering the Youngstown, Ohio hero, the crowd went behind the veteran by yelling B-HOP, B-Hop, B-Hop. Hopkins took a rest in the sixth round, and in the seventh, he was taunting Kelly. Hopkins was this active until the twelfth round when he had a once in a life time opportunity to knockout the undefeated middleweight champion.
The bell ended in the twelfth round, when Hopkins and Pavlik got into a little altercation after the bell. After the little altercation finished, Bernard rushed to a certain corner and glared down at the press row, giving one of the most scariest glares to the press row as if to ask "Why didn't you expect anything from me?"
In Pavlik's interview, Pavlik told Larry Merchant, "I don't know what happened to me. I couldn't get off my butt." I can tell you what happened. What happened was that during a sparring session in is training camp, Pavlik hurt his elbow. Knowing that he had an injury, he went on and wanted to do the fight still. Since I found that out, even if Pavlik was going to win, it would have not been a knockout. But that was the only i knew that happened to Kelly. A day after the fight I came to find out that 4 days before the fight night, Pavlik was diagnosed with bronchitis.
"We have learned our lesson. Even if it is a four round preliminary or a twelve championship bout, if Kelly isn't healthy, we are going to postpone the fight. We suffered because we haven't postponed the fight know about Kelly's condition. We learned our lesson. We went against a legend and got what we got," Jack Lew stated.
Personally I do think that they should have postponed the fight. Even if they had not, I believed that Hopkins would have won a close decision. If Pavlik was healthy, he would have looked for a knockout regardless of him saying that he doesn't look for a knockout. Knowing Pavlik, he would have looked for that one punch.
But the problem is that Hopkins is nothing but a counter puncher in this sport. That's what made so dangerous. He did it against Trinidad by knocking him out in the twelfth round. He has done it against Tarver. With Joe Calzaghe, if Hopkins had followed up, he could have knocked the mess out of the Welshman. And now, regardless if Pavlik was healthy, Bernard would have done the same thing to Pavlik.
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