When people start questioning Bernard Hopkins’s ability to continue fighting at an elite level, he takes it personally. Last night he effectively silenced his critics by completely outclassing an undefeated opponent 17 years his junior. In many ways it was the most impressive win ever for a man over the age of 40. Yes, George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer at the age of 45 for the heavyweight championship, but in that fight Foreman lost just about every round until he scored the knockout. Last night, Hopkins won just about every round, and most of them in convincing fashion. In the last round, Hopkins looked like he was ready to close the show by knocking out Pavlik, who had spent much of the run-up to the fight boasting that he would become the first man ever to knock Hopkins out. Not even close.

There were two huge unknowns heading into this fight: 1.) Could Bernard Hopkins turn back the clock at age 43 and summon the fighter who thrashed Antonio Tarver in 2006 and 2.) Could Kelly Pavlik fight with the same power and intensity at 170 pounds that he had demonstrated at the middleweight limit of 160? By the third or fourth round of last night’s fight, it had become clear that the answer to both those unknowns were swinging dramatically in Hopkins’s favor. Not only did Hopkins turn back the clock, he really dialed it back several more notches than would have been needed for a victory. The 43-year-old had the faster hands, better movement, and better workrate. It wasn’t even close. He made Pavlik look unskilled and sloppy the entire night. By the late rounds, Hopkins’s corner was calling Pavlik a joker, a fraudulent superstar who didn’t even know how to handle a jab. For his part, Pavlik looked dreadful at 170 pounds. With little snap on his punches, he was always too slow and too clumsy. He would go to throw a punch, and by the time he did he had telegraphed the blow so much that the slippery Hopkins was already gone. Pavlik’s corner kept imploring him to “double up on the jab,” but the truth was that Pavlik could not find Hopkins with one jab, let alone two.

But Hopkins’s success was more a product of his preparation than Pavlik’s conditioning. As Hopkins explained after the fight, studying films of Pavlik he realized that he was not comfortable moving to his left, and that he could not throw his powerful right hand across his body. Accordingly, Hopkins trained himself to move constantly to his right, away from Pavlik’s power. As a result, the awkward Pavlik was open for right hands throughout the entire fight.

After the fight, Hopkins went over to console Pavlik, who looked like his dog had just died, telling the young fighter that he would be a great champion, and giving him a few pointers. “Don’t let this destroy you,” he told Pavlik. Who knows how Pavlik will come back from a high-profile loss as embarrassing as this one was. And really, who cares. Because last night Bernard Hopkins cemented his place as one of the greatest fighters who ever lived, and probably the greatest over-40 fighter of all-time. Well done, and well deserved.