Dawson: I want to be the first to KO Hopkins

By Boxing News - 04/17/2012 - Comments

Image: Dawson: I want to be the first to KO HopkinsBy Dan Ambrose: Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) wants to be the first to knockout 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) when they meet up on April 28th in their rematch at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The two fought last October with Hopkins hitting the canvas and injuring his shoulder during a fall in the 2nd round.

Now they get to do it for the second and likely final time if Hopkins doesn’t suffer another injury that wipes out the fight early like it did last time. If Hopkins suffers an injury later in the fight, it’ll go to the cards. But early in the fight, you get a no contest like last time they went at it. Dawson has to make sure he doesn’t come in contact with Hopkins again because another injury will wipe out the fight and Hopkins will likely retain his title again.

Dawson said this about a Hopkins fight as quoted by supersport.com “I want to puck right up where I left off, be the aggressor and take the fight to him…That [knocking out Hopkins] would be a big statement to make because he has never been knocked out.”

Dawson says he won’t go out there looking to knock Hopkins out, but if the KO happens, he’ll be happy about it. Dawson says what he’s really looking for is to outbox Hopkins and win most of the rounds to take his World Boxing Council title.

Last time they fought, Dawson was putting a lot of pressure on Hopkins and looked bigger, faster, and stronger than Hopkins. It was only two rounds, but you could sense in that brief period of action that Dawson was going to win it and Hopkins was going to be made to look bad in losing. But then then Hopkins fell down and injured his shoulder.

A lot of boxing fans to this day think Hopkins flopped to get out of the fight rather than stick around the full 12 and risk getting beat. Only Hopkins knows for sure, since no one can feel what he felt or know what was going through his head. I just think Hopkins was on his way to losing the fight and he got mighty lucky when he suffered that injury because things were looking bleak for him at the time of the injury.

It’s doubtful that Dawson will be able to get a KO of Hopkins unless the 47-year-old fighter suffers an injury past the 5th round. I see that as a possibility but not likely. I do think an injury can occur for Hopkins, especially if the fight gets really out of hand and he starts losing badly.



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