By Dan Ambrose: On April 28th, the 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) in a rematch at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The two fighters fought last October with Hopkins hurting his left shoulder after being lifted and dropped by Dawson. I won’t waste time going into all the garbage that came later but suffice it so say the two fighters will be doing it again in April.

There are Hopkins fans out there that are convinced with their entire soul that Hopkins would have beaten Dawson had he not injured his shoulder, and I just can’t see it. It was only two rounds of action but there was nothing in Hopkins’ performance that suggested that he was going to be able to take the fight to the younger Dawson to pull out a decision or a stoppage.

It looked to me like Hopkins was going to get schooled and schooled badly by Dawson in that fight. I saw the injury as a way out for Hopkins in that fight, and I suspect we see Hopkins come up with another injury if things start to fall apart for him like I think it will. Hopkins doesn’t have a great outside game like Dawson, and he’s facing a much faster guy with better size.

Hopkins will try to bring the fight to the inside like he usually does against his opposition, but Dawson is so strong and quick that he’s not going to permit Hopkins to do that with him. He’s going to bounce around and keep the older man on the outside where Hopkins will be pretty helpless.

I still think the judges will give Hopkins a certain amount of rounds out of respect for him and because he’s arguably more popular fighter. Judges unfortunately seem to lean in the direction of the more established fighters when judging fights, which is kind of sad. But for this reason Dawson is going to have to really take the fight to Hopkins and make sure that the judges aren’t able to give Hopkins a close win in fight where he gets dominated.