Tarver and Johnson think Dawson can beat Hopkins

By Dan Ambrose: Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson both think that former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) can beat WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) on October 15th at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California.

Tarver and Johnson are familiar with both fighters, as they’ve both fought Dawson and Hopkins and lost to both. However, Tarver and Johnson recently were beaten twice by Dawson, and so the losses to him are fresh in their minds still.

Tarver believes Dawson will easily handle Hopkins without any problems, while Johnson sees Dawson having the better skills and thinks that could lead to a victory of Dawson is mature enough to beat the more experienced Hopkins.

“I’ve been in the ring with both guys,” Tarver said to fighthype.com. “I think Dawson is gonna win the fight going away. Speed kills. Dawson had [Jean] Pascal beat in the 11th round…He will beat Hopkins.”

Dawson is the much faster and younger fighter compared to Hopkins, as well as the better defensive fighter. Hopkins tends to fight harder in each round and doesn’t take rounds off like Dawson does. This is were Dawson could have problems, because he takes it easy on his opponents when he’s dominating. Against Hopkins, Dawson won’t be able to take rounds off because Hopkins will keep pressing the attack. This is why I feel Dawson will win this fight with ease, because Hopkins will force Dawson to stay mentally engaged for the full 12 rounds, because he’ll keep trying to take the fight to him for the entire fight.

Glen Johnson said this about the Dawson-Hopkins fight in an interview at 8countnews.com: “Dawson is younger and faster. Everything Hopkins does, you have to believe that Dawson can do it better. The only thing is Dawson’s mental stability. Is he stable enough to fight a guy in a hostile zone? I don’t know if he’s matured, and we all know that Hopkins can handle it. It depends on what Dawson shows up.”

If Dawson fights with the energy he did against Tomasz Adamek and Adrian Diaconu, then this should be an easy fight for Dawson. When he’s in control, Dawson looks light years better than his opponents. The trick is Dawson has to stay motivated, because when he lets off his foot on the accelerator, he lets his opponents back in the fights and they tend to get confidence from that to fight harder in the later rounds.

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