Hopkins puts on a clinic in beating Pavlik

The 43-year-old Hopkins used lightning quick combinations and a cagey, near-perfect defense to embarrass and confuse Pavlik in a 12-round non-title bout Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall.

Hopkins, who dominated the middleweight class for a decade, made the 26-year-old Pavlik — the WBC and WBO middleweight champion — look slow and powerless in fighting at 170 pounds, 10 pounds over his weight class.

Hopkins received winning scores of 119-106 from judge Alan Rubenstein, 117-109 from Barbara Perez and 118-108 from Steve Weisfeld.

The mismatch was obvious from the opening bell, and Hopkins reveled in the beating he gave the Youngstown, Ohio, fighter. By the fifth round, Pavlik was bleeding from the nose and by the seventh Hopkins was taunting him.

Pavlik (34-1) never stopped stalking Hopkins, of Philadelphia, but he never seemed to hurt him.

With tinges of gray in his beard, Hopkins even looked the fresher fighter. He improved to (49-5-1).

Horse Racing

Living Legends ride in one more race

ARCADIA, Calif. — Back in the saddle at age 59, Sandy Hawley led all the way aboard Tribal Chief to earn his 6,450th career victory in the Living Legends race at Santa Anita Saturday.

Hawley and seven other Hall of Fame jockeys came out of retirement for the race that officially counted in their career totals and was specially approved for legalized parimutuel wagering.

The riders' combined career earnings totaled more than $1.5 billion from 49,164 mounts. None of their mounts Saturday came close to matching the quality of the horses they rode to numerous Triple Crown wins over the years.

But the race was more about getting a chance to return to their previous lives for a brief time.

"It was like an 'E' ride ticket at Disneyland back in the day," said Gary Stevens, who like Jerry Bailey now works as a TV racing commentator.

Added Chris McCarron, "That was such a blast."

Hawley and Tribal Chief took the lead out of the gate and went on to a 6 1/2-length victory in the seven-furlong race. Bailey finished second aboard Dee Dee's Legacy. Scandalous and Stevens were third.

Pat Day was fourth, Julie Krone fifth, Jacinto Vasquez sixth, McCarron seventh and Angel Cordero Jr. last.

Mounts were drawn by lot, and each horse carried, ahem, 126 pounds. Stevens had to lose 15 pounds to make the riding weight. More than just protective vests bulged under the silks of a few riders.

All except Krone won at least 4,000 races in their careers.

The race was intended as a one-time kickoff event to Breeders' Cup week, but that may change.

"A couple riders came up and said, `Let's do it again next year,' " said Sherwood Chillingworth, director of the track's Oak Tree meeting. "It was a return to old times we wish we had."

Hawley said that if he's invited he'd come back to defend his title.

● In Arcadia, Calif., trainer Doug O'Neill has been placed on probation for one year after one of his horses had a positive drug test. O'Neill plans to saddle two horses in next week's Breeders' Cup.

He agreed to pay a $7,500 fine and serve a 30-day suspension, which will be stayed pending his probation, for violating four state racing rules in a stipulated agreement with the California Horse Racing Board.

O'Neill's 30-day suspension is stayed provided he has no additional Class 1, 2 or 3 violations for one year.

That means he will be able to saddle Azul Leon and Square Eddie in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile next Saturday at Santa Anita. O'Neill has won Breeders' Cup races each of the last three years.

Tennis

Nadal, Federer fall; Spaniard is No. 1

MADRID, Spain — Rafael Nadal will end the year at No. 1 after he and Roger Federer lost in the semifinals of the Madrid Masters on Saturday.

Andy Murray and Gilles Simon will meet in the final. The resilient Simon upset Nadal 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) after the fourth-ranked Murray beat Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to prevent what would have been the fifth Nadal-Federer final this season.

Once Federer lost, Nadal clinched becoming the first Spanish player in the Open era to end the year with the No. 1 ranking.

The 16th-ranked Simon, who jumps to No. 10 on Monday, goes for his fourth title in 2008. He won at Bucharest, Casablanca and Indianapolis.

The first semifinal was a rematch of the U.S. Open championship, which Federer won. This time, Murray broke the second-ranked Federer in the final set on his seventh break point chance to reach his second Masters Series final this season. The Briton won at Cincinnati.

Earlier this year, Federer and Nadal lost on the same day in the semifinals at Indian Wells.

● In Zurich, Switzerland, Venus Williams rallied from a set down to beat second-seeded Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Saturday in the Zurich Open semifinals.

Williams will face Flavia Pennetta in today's final. The Italian beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 7-6 (6) in an earlier match.

Pennetta is 3-1 against the 28-year-old American and beat her in Moscow last week.