By Dan Ambrose: Former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) turned 46-years-old today and recently received a gift when the World Boxing Council decided to give Hopkins an immediate rematch against WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) rather than making Hopkins get back in line and wait his turn. Hopkins failed to beat Pascal in their fight in December.
The fight was ruled a 12 round draw. Hopkins might have been able to make a case that he should have won the fight except for the fact that he was dropped twice in the fight. I guess there is something about challengers getting dropped multiple times that judges don’t seem to like.
I give Hopkins a lot of credit for coming back from those knockdowns and pulling it even at the end, but he hardly won that fight. And it’s sad that the WBC had decided to force Pascal to fight Hopkins immediately rather than letting Pascal fight Chad Dawson next and let Hopkins at least wait until that fight takes place. Dawson has a rematch clause already in place with Pascal and should be the one fighting him next.
The WBC expects Dawson and his promoter Gary Shaw to let the Pascal-Hopkins rematch take place with the hopes that the winner of the fight will then take on Dawson. Hopkins has reportedly said that he plans on fighting Dawson and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in that order if he beats Pascal in the rematch. If that’s the case, then everything is good.
But if Hopkins forgets about facing Dawson and just goes straight to Bute, then I don’t like that one bit. The WBC apparently had no knowledge of the contract between Pascal and Dawson for a rematch, and the WBC is going to act for what’s good for them, and for boxing by making sure that the fighters that boxing fans want to see – Hopkins and Pascal – fight each other once more. Their fight in December reportedly received the highest ratings for boxing for Showtime in the past four years. That’s hard to believe, because Hopkins isn’t a huge draw and Pascal is completely unknown in the United States.
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