Kelly Pavlik, boxing's world middleweight champion, is moving up in weight class to fight light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night. To get ready for one of the toughest tests of the undefeated Pavlik's career, he's sparring with Byron Mitchell, a guy who has a 25-4-1 career record and a very similar style to Hopkins.
"I've always been compared to Hopkins," Mitchell tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Kelly is a lot stronger than he looks. I've tried some of those tricks."
Those tricks include hitting in the clinch, clashing thighs and using the shoulders and elbows to butt Pavlik. From what I've seen of Mitchell, he's the right sparring partner to get Pavlik ready for fighting Hopkins, who has a knack for fouling without getting a point deducted.
We'll be live blogging the Hopkins-Pavlik fight on Saturday night here at FanHouse.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-18-2008 @ 11:08PM
christopher santiago said...
i think pavlik will win by decison, hopkins is very old and fighting a man who is very younger than him and must stronger we are talking about hopkins on 10/17 will be in a major of pain a guy who yes he was great when he was the top middleweight until taylor came and beat him, the point is pavlik will hurt hopkins that after this fight hopkins better retire and for pavlik a feuture fight with calzaghe will be great
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