By Dan Ambrose: 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) says he’s going to throw a lot of punches on May 21st against World Boxing Council WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. It would be a huge chance for Hopkins if he does opt to fight like this in his rematch with Pascal, because in his last fight with Pascal in December, Hopkins didn’t throw a lot of punches and did a lot of wrestling and holding on the inside after throwing shots.

In other words, Hopkins fought like usually does by turning the fight into a mauling, pushing, holding type of bout. Hopkins had to settle for a draw and now boxing fans have to watch a rematch between them after the WBC ordered the two fighters to do it over again. The bout got good ratings but was painfully boring to watch, ratings aside. The good news is that the winner of this fight will likely be facing Chad Dawson next, so we are guaranteed an interesting fight once this one is out of the way. Hopefully, the WBC doesn’t order yet another rematch between Pascal and Hopkins if they fight to another draw. That would be tragic to sit through another boring 12 round draw between these two fighters.

Hopkins said “Fans can expect drama this time around. I am going to throw a lot of punches. I am going to be out of character in the way I fight this fight. It won’t be the Bernard Hopkins people have seen the last couple of years.”

Well, it looks like Hopkins is looking to be more fan-friendly with throwing more punches. That sounds good in theory, but it’s doubtful that Hopkins will be able to carry that out in an actual fight because his mindset seems to be one of punch and than grab rather than to keep throwing nonstop. Hopkins may have to up his work rate for this fight because Pascal clearly will be. That was the knock him last time out, that he didn’t throw enough punches. The way to beat Hopkins is to throw a lot of shots and not worry about throwing with power, just stay busy and it tends to put Hopkins into his defensive mode. Hopkins can’t throw punches when he’s on the defense, as Joe Calzaghe showed us when he threw over 1000 punches against Hopkins in 2008 in a 12 round win.