A Tough Sell

A Tough Sell
By Steve Kim (Oct 13, 2008) Photo © German Villasenor

On Saturday night, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik takes on the man who once wore the crown, Bernard Hopkins, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When this fight was consummated a few months ago, everyone from Top Rank and Pavlik's management to the fighter himself, all freely admitted that tabbing 'The Executioner' was not their first, second or third choice. The bottom line is that Pavlik simply had nowhere else to turn. After negotiations with Joe Calzaghe went nowhere, they were left without many other options.

They have given this promotion the 'Unstoppable' moniker, but they might have well dubbed it, 'Hey, it beats Pavlik vs. Marco Antonio Rubio, Joe Greene or John Duddy.'

It's not often that a fight between two marquee names is such a tough sell, but that's precisely what this is. Pavlik is one of the game’s nascent stars, but judging by the pay-per-view numbers from his rematch with Jermain Taylor this past February and then his miniscule HBO ratings this past June with the severely overmatched Gary Lockett, he is still a work in progress. Outside of Youngstown, Ohio and the Rust Belt, Pavlik is still a relatively unknown commodity. It is hoped that a dominant performance against Hopkins will help to raise his profile nationally.

The problem in selling this fight isn't Pavlik, whose style and temperament is as fan-friendly as it gets. If there is a current boxer who can attract the MMA audience, it’s him. But it's the specter of seeing Hopkins do what he does best - which is to take away his opponents’ preferred offensive weapon and just generally sucking the life and action out of any fight he's involved in - that brings about a collective groan from boxing fans expected to shell out another $49.95 for this event. Nobody does what Hopkins does quite like him. He is the master of it, a third-degree black belt in neutralizing whoever is in front of him. There was a time long ago when Hopkins was actually a pretty entertaining fighter who relied on a stout right hand to regularly execute his foes. Nowadays, well, not so much. If he were a football team, he'd subscribe to the 'three yards and a cloud of dust' theory of offense. If he were a baseball team, he'd rely on pitching and defense to win every game 3-2. If this were hoops, he'd be in the four-corners all game and slow the tempo as soon as the tip-off took place.

The guy that once iced Steve Frank in record time, the guy who engaged in a wild slugfest in Ecuador with Segundo Mercado, froze Joe Lipsey in mid-air and systematically broke down Felix Trinidad is long gone. That guy has been replaced in the later years by someone who has become a master of keeping a fight close, fighting only in spurts and then doing just enough to have enough writers and observers believing he actually did enough to win the fight - like he did with Calzaghe this past April. He still has loads of craft and guile, but he's not even close to being the guy who should've had his hand raised at least once versus Taylor in 2005.

This metamorphosis seems to mirror the transition he has made outside the ring. Long ago Hopkins was the ultimate renegade, the man on the outside looking in, railing against the establishment and its ways. Paranoia and distrust determined his mentality and drove him. He fought with a certain type of anger and he compared himself to the likes of past trailblazers like Curt Flood. Fast forward to 2008 and now Hopkins - for all his loud rhetoric - is part of that very same establishment that he was once so weary of. Remember that guy who once was so critically outspoken against HBO? Well, because of his role with Golden Boy Promotions (as one of the 'partners' in the company) he has become, basically, a business partner. Curt Flood has become Charlie O.Finley.

Oh, the irony of it all.

And now, as he boasts of the impending doom that awaits Pavlik, with his trademark sound and fury, it sounds more hollow than ever, almost scripted, like a pro wrestling monologue before WrestleMania. There was a time these pronouncements came from a pissed-off individual looking to get his. But now, it's just talk, talk from a guy who is now more of a businessman than anything else, who will do or say anything to obtain and sell a fight (i.e.- his bout with Calzaghe) in trying to fulfill a corporate bottom line. But no longer will he extend himself in the middle of it to actually put on a good show for the fans. Right now, he's a better promoter than prizefighter.

The performer once known as 'the Executioner' no longer sports a hood but he now wears silk pajamas - and it shows in the way he fights.

Which is precisely why Pavlik-Hopkins is a tough sell.

TICKET SALES

Most insiders believe that this pay-per-view will have a hard time doing 350,000-plus buys, but tickets sales are brisk according to Bob Arum.

"I'm really shocked," admitted the veteran promoter this past week in East LA on the last portion of the De La Hoya-Pacquiao media tour. "Right now, we have almost $2.3 million in the box-office. There's around 2,000 tickets left and 98-percent of the tickets are $50 and $100. So I think we'll sell out."

PETER'D OUT

Last week, Sam Peter would yank the WBC belt out of the hands of Vitali Klitschko at the final press conference to promote their fight in Germany. Unfortunately, that's about the only real effort he made in trying to keep that belt out of Klitschko's possession. From the very onset, he allowed Klitschko - who had not fought since 2004 - to dictate the tempo and pace in the middle of the ring, using his left hand to keep Peter at bay, with an occasional right cross mixed in. While Klitschko was calculating and precise, Peter was uninspired and docile.

It was clearly evident by the middle rounds that unless the Nigerian landed a haymaker, he would get picked apart by Klitschko. As his facial features became swollen, and his eyes became smaller and smaller slits, he wore the look of a defeated fighter just going through the motions.

After round eight, he would call it a day. Some will say he quit. Many others believe he never even got started.

DOMINANT DAWSON

They say speed kills. Antonio Tarver might be inclined to agree, as he was thoroughly outboxed and outfought for 12 rounds by Chad Dawson, who captured the IBF light heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Palms in Las Vegas.

Dawson was simply too fast, too quick and well, too-everything for Tarver, who was simply overwhelmed for long stretches of the fight by Dawson's hand-speed and consistent body work. Tarver was incredibly dismissive of his younger foe coming in, but on this night he got his comeuppance from one of the sport’s best young talents. While he has been floored and buzzed in the past, Dawson looks to be the complete package. He's fast, he's strong, he can punch, box and isn't afraid to mix it up. He made Tarver look every bit his 39 years.

At age 26, Dawson already has wins over Tomasz Adamek, Glen Johnson and now Tarver to his credit. Soon he'll be a fixture on many pound-for-pound lists, but it says here that he's already the best 175-pounder on the planet.

FINAL FLURRIES

OK, with that being said, I want to see a rematch between Dawson and Johnson. For the record, I thought Johnson beat Dawson in April....I think Sam Peter, like a David Tua and maybe Chris Arreola down the line, is another example of a heavyweight who simply wasn't in the physical condition he needed to be in. Peter's feet looked as though they were stuck in cement and he simply couldn't move from point A to point B....Right now Texas should be ranked number one in the country, with their QB Colt McCoy as the Heisman frontrunner.....Do you believe in Penn State now? Look out, but Joe Pa has himself a national title contender....Did you know that the number one ranked lt. heavy by the IBF is Tavoris Cloud? Dawson vs. Cloud is a fight I'd pay to see....To my friends Daryl and Kirk, do you believe in Okie St coach Mike Gundy just a lil' bit more, now? HEEEE'S 40!!!! HE'S A MAAAANN!!!....

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E-Mail Steve: k9kim@maxboxing.com

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