By Paul Strauss: Congratulations to Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins. At 46 yrs of age, he becomes the oldest man ever to win a legitimate world championship, surpassing George Foreman and his kayo over Michael Moore. B-Hop kept saying he was going to do, but there were more than a few doubters. After all, boxing is the toughest sport, and realistically how many forty-six year olds are competing at a high level in any sport.
Many thought Bernard earned a victory in their first fight last December, even though Pascal was credited with two knockdowns. That’s because Hopkins came on strong and controlled the majority of the remaining rounds. Tonight Bernard started sooner, and never let Pacal take control . He used a good jab, and lots of lead right hands. When Pascal would demonstrate his usual tactic of exploding out of no where with a hard combination, Bernard stayed calm and countered often.
Referee Ian John-Lewis warned Hopkins several times over the course of the fight for holding, and for Hopkins’ fans there was some trepidation about possibly losing a point, which would have been unfortunate, because Pascal was holding on for dear life more than once himself. Thankfully, the referee refained from doing more than make a verbal warning.
A key to Hopkins’ win was verbalized by Bernard in his post-fight interview with Max Kellerman when he pointed out that Pascal will become a champion again if he doesn’t let this loss affect him too much. He added that Pascal needs to learn how to “take something off his hard punches and set them up”. It’s kind of like the great baseball pitchers, who don’t come into their own until they learn how to throw some off speed pitches or change ups. All of the greats knew how to do it. Time will tell if Pascal learns.
Bernard also made it perfectly clear that he is now going to sit back on his laurels, and in fact looks forward to fighting Lucien Bute, and Chad Dawson. Dawson fought and beat Adrian Diaconu in the bout leading up to the main event. It was a good fight, but not a great one. Dawson dominated, but showed some ring rust. Interestingly, Emanuel Steward is his new trainer, and he worked the corner, and then pulled double duty and shared announcing duties with Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman. He chuckled about the possibility of a Dawson vs. Hopkins fight, and would only offer that it would be an interesting matchup.
Tonight’s main event started out very cautiously. A whole minute passed before a punch was thrown by either man. There was a lot of movement and feinting, but neither guy would commit to anything. Possibly a Pascal round, but even for lack of action on both sides is probably more accurate.
In the second round, there was the first clash of heads, which occurred at the end of the round. Pascal did explode with a few combinations, but Hopkins stood his ground and countered. Score it a round for Pascal. In the third round, the first telling blow of the fight was landed by Pascal. It was a good left, but moments later Hopkins landed a hard right that hurt Pascal. Pascal is tough though, and he came back strong to end the round. Score the round for Hopkins.
In between rounds, trainer Nasim Richarson told B-Hop, “Don’t slug with him.” Bernard came out and soon was “mugging”
Pascal, taunting him, trying and succeeding to get under his skin. Pascal reacted with a furious attack, but Bernard was ready and defended well against it, but couldn’t avoid everything thrown and got caught with a hard right. He was really hurt by the punch, but he is a cagey veteran, and wouldn’t allow Pascal to follow up. Score the round for Pascal
Pascal’s people were telling him to keep his distance and control the center of the ring, and to explode on Hopkins with hard combinations. Nasim was telling Bernard, “Don’t get into any of that wild slugging stuff.” Hopkins used the old Jersey Joe Walcott type walk away move. It’s designed to look like your relaxed and taking a breather, but just when your opponent eases off for a moment, you explode back with a shot. It worked for Bernard more than once in the fight.
In the sixth round, Pascal got caught in his right eye with a thumb from Hopkins glancing jab. It seemed to bother him, as his was squinting for a while. After the sixth round, Pascal was told that he needed to attack more, and to back up Hopkins. He had his moments, but Hopkins was controlling the majority of time in the remaining rounds. He continued to land lead rights. Pascal corner reminded him that he needed to “Explode your hands upstairs.”, which he did, but not often enough, and not with the kind of results he was hoping for.
On three occasions, Pascal’s gloves touched the canvas, but the referee failed to score knockdowns. Jim Lampley and Harold Lederman thought the referee blew it, but Max Kellerman and Manny Steward both said they were glad knockdowns weren’t called, because they thought they were more of a slip than anything else; although, Max said two times is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. In the post fight interview, even Hopkins agreed with they were slips.
In the eleventh round, Pascal really got desparate, and came on strong not only with punches, but with his head and left shoulder as well. But, no one can get the best of B-Hop in that game. He’s a master and knows all the tricks, and probably has even invented a few. Still it was a tough close round. Nasim cautioned Bernard to “Keep the jab alive and alert.” Bernard did, but Pascal still managed to catch him with a hard right, which hurt the aging warrior. But, B-Hop tied him up, and managed to clear his head well enough to come back with a combination of his own.
While everyone was waiting for the scorecards to be tabulated, Bernard Hopkins dropped down to the canvas and started doing push ups. He actually pulled the same stunt earlier in the fight, which caused the referee to do a double take. Not to be out done, Pascal also dropped down after the end of the fight and started doing push ups as well, and to prove he was younger, stronger, etc., he did a few one handed!
But, the old man would prevail this night. When the counting was done, it was clearly a night for the history books. Bernard Hopkins was announced as the new world’s champion. He thanked everyone he could think of and then started hugging people, including ring announcer Michael Buffer. As for Jean Pascal, he’s all for Part III – a rematch. But, he might have not get it. If Bernard gets his way, it first will be Chad or Lucien, and then maybe Social Security.