By Dan Ambrose: Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) blew his chance to pick up the WBC light heavyweight title when he was knocked down twice by champion Jean Pascal and had to rally to just make it a 12 round draw on December 18th. Hopkins wants to fight a rematch with Pascal.

The problem is Pascal already has a rematch coming up with former two-time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson in early 2011, meaning that Hopkins is going to have to cool his jets while he waits for his chance. One problem that Hopkins has, though, is his age. He’s turning 46 on January 15th, and that’s kind of old for a fighter to have to wait as long as Hopkins will be waiting to get a shot at the winner of the Dawson-Pascal bout.

Hopkins would really be doing himself a big favor if he were to either keep busy by fighting someone during his wait or perhaps move on altogether. The reason is because the chances of Pascal winning the Dawson fight aren’t all that good.

Dawson is now trained by Emanuel Steward, and he’s a good trainer and will likely fix Dawson’s low punch output problems. Before the Dawson-Pascal first fight, Dawson was considered to be the best fighter in the light heavyweight division by many people.

Unfortunately, Dawson didn’t let his hands go in the Pascal fight until far too late in the bout. If Steward fixes Dawson’s work rate, he’s going to beat Pascal fairly easy. This will then put Hopkins in the past position where he’ll have to either take on Dawson, a fighter that’s a bad match-up for Hopkins due to Dawson’s hand speed, size and defensive ability or Hopkins may have to decide to face the beaten Pascal. A fight between Hopkins and Pascal will lose it’s luster if Dawson beats Pascal first.