Hopkins vs. Dawson: Will Chad put Bernard out of his misery on April 28th?

By Boxing News - 03/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Hopkins vs. Dawson: Will Chad put Bernard out of his misery on April 28th?By Dan Ambrose: 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) is finally starting to show signs of getting old as we saw in his fight recently against Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) last October in their 2nd round no contest fight. The fight ended when Hopkins fell down and injured his left shoulder in the 2nd round. Hopkins and Dawson meet once against to try and settle things once and for all on April 28th at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Hopkins was hoping to get a money fight against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. However, the World Boxing Council has ordered for Hopkins to fight Dawson again and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. With this fight there’s a good chance Hopkins will get beaten convincingly and more or less finished off as a fighter if the loss is particularly like I think it will. Between his aging and the talent that the young 29-year-old Dawson has going for him, Hopkins has effectively met his match and he doesn’t seen all that excited about taking the rematch.

Hopkins is going to have to raise his game considerably if he wants to have his hand stretched above his head after the fight. I just don’t know whether Hopkins has enough left in him after two tough fights against Jean Pascal. Hopkins looked like a different fighter after emerging from those fights with one draw and one win. It’s unclear whether Hopkins lost something from the head shots he took in that fight of from perhaps age finally starting to catch up to him after all this time.

Dawson already knows how to beat Hopkins, and that’s by pressuring him and forcing him to fight hard. Hopkins won’t be given any rests while he’s standing in a fight against Dawson because he plans on taking the fight to him and making him really pay. Hopkins will be very lucky if he can earn a decision in this fight because Dawson is fighting at a really high level right now and it’s hard to see Hopkins being able to out-duel the much younger 29-year-old Dawson.



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