It was, simply put, one of the most remarkable ring performances I have ever seen. Maybe the best this year, and 2010 has had some great fights: Manny Pacquiao’s total destruction of the bigger Antonio Margarito, Amir Khan’s gutsy win over the iron Marcos Maidana and over course Paul Williams kissing the canvas courtesy of Sergio Martinez. But seeing the 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins out class, out box, out think the 28-year-old Jean Pascal of Montreal in their light heavy-weight title fight was simply amazing.

The fight was judged a draw – mostly because of two knockdowns by Pascal in round 1 and round 3 – meaning Pascal kept his title. The Canadian won the first three rounds for sure. Maybe the fourth. MAYBE. After that, it was all Hopkins. I scored it 114-112 Hopkins. And if you watched the fight, you could see in the faces of Pascal and his corner. They lost the fight and they knew it.

Ok, so I its hard to argue with Stephen Brunt’s assessment here. The draw was not a robbery exactly. The knock downs (even though the first one is suspect. Hopkins was hit on the back of the head) gave Pascal some early points and its possible to give Pascal a closely fought 10th round, which results in a 1113-113 fight. Still, he was taken to school by pugilism’s genius professor.  He should have been given the win or failing that, an immediate rematch.

At the very least, it showed that boxing is not exactly the young man’s game that is often claimed. Some smarts and hard training can keep you going for a long time…good new for those of us on the dark side of 35!

Thoughts?