By Dan Rafael: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, former two time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) is declining a fight against Romanian Adrian Diaconu (27-2, 15 KO’s) for the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins vs. Jean Pascal card on May 21st.

Rafael doesn’t say what the problem is that is causing Dawson not to want to fight Diaconu. Dawson was supposed to be fighting a rematch with Pascal after losing to him by a 11th round technical decision last year in August.

Dawson had a rematch clause that stated that he and Pascal could fight one fight and then fight the rematch. The WBC came along and nixed that by demanding that Pascal fight an immediate rematch with 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins, who was knocked down a couple of times by Pascal and had to settle for a 12 round draw last December.

Instead of having to wait in line for Dawson’s rematch with Pascal to go through first, Hopkins was given another title shot, while Dawson was given the option of fighting on the Hopkins-Pascal undercard against the tough Diaconu.

If Dawson were to win that fight, he would then be allowed to fight the winner of the Pascal-Hopkins bout. It’s not quite as good a deal as his original rematch clause had it for him with him getting the rematch with Pascal without having to wait two fights and jump through an additional hoop of having to beat a tough fighter like Diaconu.

It’s unknown what Dawson will do now. He could look to fight someone else on the card or go in a different direction against someone else and then look to fight one of the other light heavyweight champions.