By Jason Kim: Former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) goes up against Romanian contender Adrian Diaconu (27-2, 15 KO’s) this Saturday night on the undercard of the Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins bout at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Dawson, 28, has a lot riding on this fight, as if he can get by Diaconu, he will have a fight against the winner of Hopkins-Pascal.

Dawson was supposed to be fighting Pascal instead of Hopkins, but both the WBC and HBO wanted to see a rematch between Hopkins and Pascal, even though their fight last December was painfully dull to watch. Whether it was boring or not, the bout brought in good ratings for HBO. It’s unclear whether the rematch will bring in as many eyeballs, though.

Some fans may be turned off towards the second fight after seeing how dull their fight last December ended up being. The best thing that can come out of the Pascal vs. Hopkins bout is if Hopkins wins the fight, it will result in a fight between Hopkins and Dawson. This is a fight that Dawson has been after for the past several years, but has been unable to get Hopkins to show any interest in taking the fight.

Dawson, a southpaw with blazing hand speed and superb boxing ability, was cruising along beating one fighter after another until losing to Jean Pascal last year by an 11th round technical decision. Dawson failed to throw enough punches until the 11th round, when he flurried on Pascal and seemed to have him hurt. The fight ended shortly after Dawson hurt Pascal when the two fighters collided heads resulting in Dawson suffering a huge cut. Instead of being allowed to make it out of the ring to see if his corner help could stop the cut, the ringside doctor halted the fight. It’s questionable whether Pascal would have made it out of the round had the fight been allowed to continue.

Diaconu, 32, comes into this fight in less than the best possible position having lost two out of his last three fights. Diaconu was beaten in back to back fights by Pascal in 2009, and has only fought once since then, beating journeyman Omar Sheika by a 10 round decision. At only 5’9″ and not particularly fast, Diaconu is going to have problems with the 6’1″ Dawson’s speed and height. Dawson is a lot tougher fight for Diaconu then the shorter, easier to hit Pascal. This fight looks to be a mismatch.