Ropes

Though there will be a couple of posts in the coming days to go along with the article for Sports NY Style, here are a few observations from last night's Kelly Pavlik - Bernard Hopkins bout:

• If Hopkins showed this much aggression in his previous fights with Jermain Taylor and Joe Calzaghe, do you think he would have set his sails, riding off into retirement off of those potential victories? He would have certainly defended the middleweight crown for another fight or two before pushing for Calzaghe. Yet, the inevitable swan song would have ended with this ad-libbed chorus: "I still never let a white boy beat me".
  
  
• Only the retired (you can choose to believe that or not) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. used the ropes as well, if not better than Hopkins did last night. He not only used them in his usual defensive manner (which has always been exceptional), but he used them to enhance his offense as leaning on them created leverage into his counterpunches from Pavlik's attempted advances.
  
  
• From the press conference (there will be some points from that added later on Scribe and the article for Sports NY Style), Pavlik's manager Jack Loew mentioned the post-fight conversation the fighters had. Hopkins, who made twenty defenses of the middleweight crown, suggested that Pavlik stay at his natural middleweight size and he could dominate the division as close to the manner that the 43-year old did for over a decade. Loew essentially agreed and it appears that Pavlik can reign there until (and if) new challengers emerge in the next two to three years.
  
  
• Does Pavlik try to move up in weight later in his career? Most successful middleweights have considered it and some have done so with mixed results. The extra ten pounds seemed to have slowed him down and stripped some of his late-round stamina as it was the case when he had his rematch with Taylor last year. However, if those challengers don't emerge and he still possesses power in that right cross, it'll be hard for Pavlik to grow his legacy and drawing power by staying in a stagnant division.

Much more to come during the week about the fight, the NFL, the World Series, the NBA and random quotes from the 1986 Goldie Hawn epic Wildcats. Can't do much when you have three hours of sleep.

Say What?!?!: Sing it with me now... "football...Wildcats... football... Wildcats..."