Chad Dawson says Bernard Hopkins is “reluctant to face me”

By Boxing News - 01/11/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: For the past three years, former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) has been trying to get Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) to fight him but with zero luck. Hopkins has instead picked out vulnerable fighters like Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver, Kelly Pavlik, Roy Jones Jr., Enrique Ornelas, while losing to Joe Calzaghe.

Dawson, up until his poor performance in his 11th round technical decision to Jean Pascal last year, was considered by many to be the best fighter in the light heavyweight division. And despite that, Dawson still couldn’t get Hopkins to fight him for some reason. Recently, Hopkins was knocked down a couple of times and had to settle for a 12 round draw with WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal.

The WBC has come to Hopkins’ rescue and are saying that Pascal has to give Hopkins and immediate rematch instead of allowing Pascal to fight a rematch with Dawson, who had a rematch clause with Pascal. Hopkins recently laid out his future plans for what he wants to do if he beats Pascal in a rematch by saying he wants to go after IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. Dawson isn’t in Hopkins’ plans and you have to wonder why.

Dawson had this to say about Hopkins in an interview at eastsideboxing.com: “He [Hopkins[ is very reluctant to face me. I think that Bernard Hopkins saw the fight between me and Pascal and I definitely think he knew that wasn’t the Chad Dawson that he was used to seeing.”

Dawson is currently ranked at #1 WBC and #3 WBO. I don’t see Hopkins ever fighting him. Dawson has the skills and the style to make Hopkins look really bad, and with new trainer Emanuel Steward fixing the holes in his game, Dawson is going to be even better.



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