By Jim Dower: Former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) will be fighting in a high visibility fight on May 21st on the undercard of the rematch between WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins at a still to be determined venue. The fight will be shown on HBO, and Dawson, if he wins his fight on the undercard, he’ll be fighting the winner of the Pascal vs. Hopkins bout.

The proposed opponents for Dawson are contenders Adrian Diaconu (27-2, 15 KO’s) and Librado Andrade (29-3, 22 KO’s). Both of those fighters are about the same in terms of quality, so either way, Dawson has got a tough fight on his hands. The only question about the outcome of this fight is whether Hopkins will opt to fight Dawson if he and Dawson win their fights. Hopkins has pretty much avoided Dawson all these years, and it’s worrisome that Hopkins is talking about wanting to fight IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute rather than Dawson.

The word is that Hopkins is supposed to fight Dawson if both of them win their fights on May 21st, but will Hopkins do that? That would really mess things up because Dawson was supposed to be fighting Pascal now because of his rematch clause he had with Pascal from their fight last year in August. Pascal was allowed one interim fight, which he took against Hopkins last December. However, their fight ended up being a 12 round majority draw. The WBC then stepped in and forced Pascal to fight an immediate rematch with Hopkins rather than allowing Pascal to fulfill his contract obligations with Dawson. Everything will work out as Pascal fights Dawson, if they both win, of if Hopkins faces Dawson if he beats Pascal. I have my doubts whether Hopkins will do this.