By Dan Ambrose: If Bernard Hopkins and his promoters from Golden Boy Promotions were hoping that Hopkins would get an immediate rematch ordered by the World Boxing Council it seems that they’ve got a bit of bad news today by the report from the Montreal Gazette that the WBC will not be ordering an immediate rematch.
Hopkins and WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal fought to a 12 round majority draw last Saturday night at the Pepsi Coliseum, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
WBC president Jose Sulaiman said “The WBC won’t order a rematch.” So there it is. The decision has been made apparently. Pascal has a rematch already slated for Chad Dawson, so unless Dawson doesn’t want to take the fight with Pascal next, which is possible but not probable, Pascal will likely face him next.
In the meantime, Hopkins will be forced to wait around for a while longer and continue to age while he waits. Hopkins turns 46 next month, by the way. It might be more in Hopkins interest to not just sit on the shelf and stew for six to eight months while waiting for his rematch with Pascal.
He’d be smart to continue fighting and try and get the best possible fight he can find. There’s got to be someone out there that Hopkins could fight. Heck, even someone like Winky Wright would be far better than just waiting without fighting. Perhaps Golden Boy can convince Dawson not to take the fight with Pascal next. I don’t know why they would, because a fight against Dawson would be just as good as another bout against Pascal.
Hopkins, his promoters and his many fans felt that he won the fight. Unfortunately, not all the judges agreed with him as they ruled it a majority draw by the scores of 113-113, 114-114 and 114-112 for Hopkins. I had Pascal winning the fight by a close margin. Hopkins was dropped in the 1st, 3rd and had problems in the 4th and 5th as well.
I gave all those rounds to Pascal, including the 12th. Hopkins, leading with his head often, fought well from rounds six through eleven. With the fight on the line in the 12th, Hopkins made the mistake of wrestling too much and got tagged a lot by Pascal. A lot of the other rounds were close because Pascal was landing the faster, harder and cleaner shots. Hopkins was throwing and landing more, but he landed with less power.
Comments are closed.