Hopkins Stands Behind Kelly Pavlik's Road To Recovery
By Keith Idec
PHILADELPHIA — Jean Pascal isn’t the only previous opponent on Bernard Hopkins’ mind as he heads toward his 46th birthday.
Hopkins isn’t interested in fighting Kelly Pavlik again, though. If there is any way that he can, Hopkins would like to help Pavlik as the former middleweight champion attempts to deal with his dependence on alcohol.
“I wish him well,” Hopkins said. “Hopefully he’ll overcome it. It’s a tough thing.”
Hopkins hopes he gets the opportunity in the near future to meet with Pavlik to talk about whatever Pavlik would want to discuss. Though Hopkins isn’t certain Pavlik would welcome such a meeting, he has been concerned about the Youngstown, Ohio, native since he learned nearly a month ago that Pavlik entered the Betty Ford Center on Nov. 4 to treat his problem with alcohol.
Hopkins’ offer was another sign of a deep mutual respect he and Pavlik have displayed since they signed contracts to fight nearly 2½ years ago. Though 43, Hopkins 51-5-2, 32 KOs, 1 NC) dominated a then-undefeated Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) throughout a 12-round fight that was contested at a catch weight of 170 pounds on Oct. 18, 2008, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
After soundly defeating him (118-108, 117-109, 116-109), Hopkins compassionately consoled a battered, dejected Pavlik in the ring. Among other things, he encouraged Pavlik not to allow that lopsided loss to define what Hopkins still considers a promising career.
“I said things in the ring to him that night that I meant,” Hopkins said. “I still think he has great talent and I think that he can compete at the elite level. I wish him the best.”
Pavlik’s career has stalled since Hopkins beat him by unanimous decision.
He has won two of his three fights since that image-damaging night, but those two victories came against overmatched opponents Pavlik was supposed to beat easily — Marco Antonio Rubio (48-5-1, 41 KOs) and Miguel Espino (20-3-1, 9 KOs). Pavlik’s post-Hopkins existence has been defined more by withdrawing from three scheduled middleweight title fights in 2009, two against Paul Williams and another against Sergio Mora.
According to executives at Top Rank Inc., which promotes Pavlik, those three fights didn’t come off because Pavlik developed a staph infection in his left hand, which eventually landed him in the intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic in September 2009. Pavlik’s handlers have maintained that the Mora match was never really scheduled, and that Pavlik was working toward signing a new contract with Top Rank at that time.
Regardless, 2010 was worse for Pavlik than 2009.
Four months after stopping Espino in the fifth round in Youngstown, the popular Pavlik was thoroughly out-boxed by Argentina’s Sergio Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) in what he hoped would be a fight that rejuvenated a career that took off after he knocked out Jermain Taylor to win the WBC and WBO middleweight titles on Sept. 29, 2007, also at Boardwalk Hall. After considering advancing to super middleweight, where several marketable matches awaited him, Pavlik decided to make a firmer physical commitment to making the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.
He was scheduled to box Bryan Vera (17-5, 11 KOs), of Austin, Texas, on the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito undercard Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium. He pulled out of that fight, too, citing a rib injury.
Several days later, Pavlik checked into the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., barely more than a week after making a promotional appearance in New York for the Vera fight. It was during that meeting with reporters that a respectful Pavlik predicted Hopkins would upset Pascal, despite that their fight took place in Quebec, Pascal’s proverbial backyard.
“I’m going with Hopkins,” Pavlik said that day. “His birth certificate says he’s 45, but he’s not like any other 45-year-old fighter. He takes great care of his body, does all the right things.”
Hopkins homecoming appropriate With Pascal contractually obligated to a rematch against Chad Dawson, Hopkins cannot be certain if he’ll get his own rematch against the WBC light heavyweight champion, much less when and where.
But if there’s any way Hopkins can steer a second fight against Pascal toward his hometown of Philadelphia, it seems only fitting to stage Hopkins-Pascal II there. Critics have hammered Hopkins since his career-changing stoppage of Felix Trinidad nine years ago for failing to become big business in Philadelphia, but a fight the magnitude of a Pascal rematch should generate gate receipts his last two lower-profile fights in his hometown failed to produce.
Hopkins’ much-maligned majority draw with Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KOs) drew more fans to Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Quebec, a week ago (roughly 16,500) than the combined attendance from his unanimous decision win against Enrique Ornelas (30-7, 20 KOs) last Dec. 2 at Temple University’s Liacouras Center and his mandatory middleweight title defense against infamous Frenchman Morrade Hakkar (39-7, 25 KOs), nearly eight years ago at The Spectrum.
This scenario seems unlikely, of course, because Pascal, at least for now, remains the champion and is a proven draw in Quebec, where the Haitian-born boxer relocated when he was a child. Profitability, as always, will dictate, above all else, where a Pascal-Hopkins rematch is staged.
But since Hopkins has already stated that there’s no way he would return to Quebec to oppose Pascal a second time, Philadelphia should at least be considered as a site. Hopkins will be 46 by then and chasing history surely would spark interest there, especially given the controversial nature of their first fight.
Taking that fight to a Las Vegas venue would seemingly amount to those that run Golden Boy Promotions, which represents Hopkins, and Group Yvon Michel, which promotes Pascal, asking for empty seats. Boardwalk Hall would make more sense, given its proximity to Philadelphia and that Hopkins’ two recent bouts there, defeats of Pavlik and Antonio Tarver in June 2006, both drew crowds in excess of 10,000.
The site aside, Hopkins just hopes he gets another shot at Pascal, who lost on one scorecard (114-112) and was even on the two other cards (114-114, 113-113).
“If this guy has a backbone and wants to walk around with any kind of dignity and self-worth,” Hopkins said, “the only thing he can do is fight me again. It that was me, I know that is the only way I could really live with myself.”
