Bernard Hopkins vs Chad Dawson II Preview: Will This Be A Retirement Party Or Will The Professor School The Student?

By Ronald "RC" Cameron

In this day and age, most elite fighters seem to be more interested in low risk, high reward fights. Back in the late 1970's, the Light-Heavyweight division was filled with elite, Hall of Fame caliber fighters.  Guys like Mathew Saad Muhammad, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Victor Galindez, Marvin Johnson and others all fought each other and sometimes they fought on the same card. The Light Heavyweight division will never be as competitive as it was back in the late 1970's but this Saturday night in Atlantic City, Light Heavyweight champion and former Undisputed Middleweight king Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins, at the ripe age of 47, will once again take on challenger and former Light-Heavyweight champ, "Bad" Chad Dawson.

The two faced each other last October and the fight ended in major controversy.  Near the end of the second round Dawson and Hopkins got tangled up and Dawson threw Hopkins off of him which resulted in Hopkins falling to the canvas and landing awkwardly on his shoulder. Hopkins was in obvious pain after the fall and the referee asked Hopkins if he could continue and Hopkins replied, "With one arm, yes!"  The referee decided that Hopkins could not continue with one arm, so he stopped the fight and awarded the fight and the title to Dawson, which caused a lot of drama and outrage from boxing fans. After the fight, Dawson accused Hopkins of faking his injury, stating that Hopkins was looking for a way out while Hopkins insisted that he was hurt and he even referenced another incident where he was pushed down in another fight (the Antwun Echols rematch in 2000) and he injured his shoulder, but he continued fighting and stopped Echols in the 10th round.  Hopkins filed a protest, stating the fight should be ruled a no-contest thus making their fight null and void which would give Hopkins his title back. A month later, the WBC did the right thing (for once) and declared their first fight a technical draw and reinstated Hopkins as the WBC champion.

One more thing that needs to be mentioned before I continue with this preview--early in the second round, Hopkins caught Dawson with a short, counter right hand which caused Dawson to lose his balance and his glove clearly touched the canvas and that should have been ruled a knockdown. Referee Pat Russell made two terrible mistakes in this fight-- missing the knockdown and of course, not explaining to Hopkins that if he did not continue fighting with his injury, he would lose this fight.

So why should people be interested in this rematch? For me, I'm always interested when Bernard Hopkins fights. I know his style isn't for everyone; he's a defensive guru and he knows every dirty trick in the book, but Hopkins is also a survivor who's at his best when he's considered the underdog. Many boxing experts thought that Felix Trinidad would beat him 11 years ago and Hopkins annihilated him, few people gave Hopkins a chance against Kelly Pavlik a few years ago and Hopkins exposed him and last year and there were some who thought that Jean Pascal had Bernard's number and Hopkins took him to school in their rematch.  It's usually not a wise choice to bet against the Satchel Paige of boxing.

As for Chad Dawson, he has a wealth of boxing talent, and not for that unfortunate cut in his fight with Pascal, I thought Dawson was on the verge of stopping Pascal late in the fight. When Chad is focused, he's one of the best fighters in the sport. He whipped Thomas Adamek and he defeated  former champions Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver twice, so he's familiar with fighting crafty veterans. And throw in the fact that these two don't like each other and they both feel that they have something to prove to each other, to me that's the perfect formula for a good fight.


Keys To The Fight




Chad Dawson

• Out-work Hopkins: The one knock on Dawson is that he doesn't always fight aggressively, especially late in fights.  He must out-work the crafty champion in the same manner as fellow southpaw Joe Calzaghe did 4 years ago. 

• Go to the body early and often: Hopkins always comes into his fights in excellent condition and he always fights well in the later rounds, but most guys who fought Hopkins did not throw body shots early in the fight. If Dawson goes to the body early and sticks with it through the course of the fight, this could pay dividends for the challenger if the fight goes into the championship rounds. 

• Stick to your game-plan: Dawson cannot afford getting caught up into a street brawl with Hopkins. We all know that Hopkins can fight that way if he needs to and Dawson has already shown that he can lose his cool. If he sticks to his game-plan, Dawson's hand speed and youth could pose some major problems for the champion. 

Bernard Hopkins

• Be a counter-puncher: As I mentioned earlier, Hopkins had some success in their first fight by counter-punching, especially with lead right hands, which work well with southpaws.  Hopkins knows he can hurt Dawson with that shot, so he needs to stick with what works.

• Keep the fight in the center of the ring: Hopkins can adapt to any style, but he has had some problems when he's been forced to fight off of the ropes. Hopkins is at his best when he's methodically moving around the ring, surveying his opponent and when he sees an opening, he attacks. Hopkins is no spring chicken, so moving around the ring may not be the wise thing to do for 12 full rounds, but he can't allow Dawson to trap him along the ropes and out-work him.

• Play a few "mind games" with Dawson: This is something that Hopkins is famous for doing in most of his fights. I'm not saying he should do something illegal (He's famous for that as well), what I'm suggesting is for Hopkins to do something that will irritate Dawson and get him to deviate away from his game-plan. I'm not going to suggest anything for Hopkins to do because I'm sure if Hopkins plans on doing something along those lines, he will come up with something creative because he's done it so many times in the past. 

RC's Prediction

This is a tough fight to predict because there are several questions that needs to be answered going into this bout. Can Dawson maintain his game-plan for 12 rounds? Will Hopkins turn this fight into a brawl and if so, who does that favor?  Will Father Time finally show up and rain on Bernard's parade?  To me, this fight will be come down to which fighter is in better condition and who has more discipline.  As we saw in their brief battle last year, I think we will seen a chess match early on. Hopkins will have some success landing counter right hands and Dawson will be effective when he forces Hopkins to fight going backwards. But once this fight starts to heat up in the later rounds, I believe Hopkins will gradually take the fight over by turning this fight into a war and taking advantage of Dawson's mistakes. Dawson will have his moments, but in the end, Hopkins will out-smart Dawson and win a hard-fought majority decision over Dawson.