FanHouse BernardHopkins

Following Chad Dawson's 12-round destruction of Antonio Tarver last October, there wasn't much interest in seeing a rematch. However, in the wacky world of professional boxing things like fan interest and common sense don't always come into play. Tarver excercised his rematch clause and there was nothing Dawson could do to avoid the fight.

Plus, Dawson, one of boxing's brightest young stars, will gladly remind you that he never ducks anyone.

FanHouse spoke to Dawson about being forced to fight Tarver again this Saturday night in his HBO debut and his thoughts on Bernard Hopkins' refusal to fight him. The interview is after the jump.

Saturday night's Manny Pacquaio vs. Ricky Hatton fight is a co-promotion between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions. Pacquaio is a Top Rank fighter, while Hatton fights for Golden Boy. Bernard Hopkins is the president of the east coast chapter of Golden Boy Promotions.

So naturally, "B-Hop" is predicting an easy victory for Hatton, right? Wrong.

Boxing has a hard time attracting new fans for many reasons. Two of the biggest are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight. Below is my attempt to fix that, listing the legitimate champions in each of the eight traditional weight classes.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Saturday night's fight between Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley is the most highly anticipated bout of the new year. In this video we talk to both Margarito and Mosley about what they're going to bring to the ring. Bernard Hopkins also gives his expert opinion on what the outcome of this live HBO fight will be.

Check out the video after the jump.

As world light heavyweight boxing champion Joe Calzaghe prepares for the biggest fight of his career on Saturday against Roy Jones, he says it's also going to be the last fight of his career:

"I promised my mum this would be my last fight," he said. There are loads of ifs and buts. At the moment, I don't want to fight on. I don't want to go to the well once too often. I'm nearly 37 and in tremendous shape but, if you fight just for the money, you get beat.

"I've run out of big names: [Jeff] Lacy, [Mikkel] Kessler, [Bernard] Hopkins ... now Roy Jones. There is no one else."

But there are two problems with that. First, there's reportedly a clause in both fighters' contracts that would allow for a rematch. It's not clear exactly what would trigger the rematch, but suffice to say that if it's a close, exciting fight, both fighters could make a fortune for agreeing to do it again.

And, of course, there's the fact that boxers who say they're retiring usually don't mean it. Even if Calzaghe destroys Jones in such a way that no one would care to see a rematch, there's still money to be made in a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, or in a fight with someone like Chad Dawson or Antonio Tarver. One way or another, I think Calzaghe will break his promise to his mum.

We'll have a Jones-Calzaghe live blog on Saturday night here at FanHouse.

The 43-year-old former champ Bernard Hopkins found a fountain of youth tonight in Atlantic City, whipping world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik to win a one-sided decision.

It was one of the most impressive showings of Hopkins' brilliant career: He easily defeated one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, dominating the fight from start to finish. For Pavlik, it was an embarrassing showing, a fight that did a great deal to tarnish his reputation.

Hopkins showed class in the ring afterward, giving the 26-year-old Pavlik a pep talk and telling him that he shouldn't let the loss define him. Pavlik will be back, but there's no denying that the biggest fight of his career so far is also the most disappointing.

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of tonight's Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins fight, where we'll provide round-by-round updates of all the action.

The pay-per-view telecast and our live blog have already begun, and the main event will begin around 11 p.m. Eastern.

Kelly Pavlik is moving up to 170 pounds to fight Bernard Hopkins tonight, but while some fighters have trouble maintaining their conditioning as they move up in weight, all the talk coming out of the Pavlik camp is that he's in better shape than ever before.

"His conditioning is unreal," said Pavlik's trainer, Rocky Taumoepeau, on ESPN's Jim Rome is Burning. "Endurance and everything he does. (Running) is the No. 1 part of what he does."

That meshes with what Pavlik told me last week: He hasn't bulked up much, and he feels like he has as much energy as ever. We're not going to see a flabby Pavlik tonight.

We'll have a Hopkins-Pavlik live blog here at FanHouse.

Kelly Pavlik is a heavy favorite to beat Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night. Gamblers overwhelmingly are putting their money on Pavlik, and sports writers have practically crowned Pavlik the winner before the fight happens.

But here's something interesting: The people who presumably know the most about the sport -- boxers themselves -- aren't so sure Pavlik is going to win.

At least, that's the result of an unscientific survey that the promoters put together. Twelve boxing journalists (including me) were asked to pick the winner, and all 12 of us chose Pavlik. But six boxers were asked to pick the winner, and only two of them -- Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton -- picked Pavlik. Neither of them sounded very confident in their picks. Meanwhile, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Vernon Forrest all confidently picked Hopkins.

Jermain Taylor, who has fought Hopkins and Pavlik twice each, didn't give a clear answer.

All the predictions from the fighters and the writers are below.

Kelly Pavlik is the best middleweight boxer in the world and has a record of 34-0 with 30 knockouts. But his opponent on Saturday night, Bernard Hopkins, doesn't find those 34 wins very impressive.

On Countdown to Pavlik-Hopkins, the show that follows both fighters as they get ready for the fight, Hopkins dismissed Pavlik's record as one built on beating cupcakes.

"If I look at his record, I see three names, out of 34 fights, that I know of," Hopkins said.