By Dan Ambrose: A bout between 46-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) and former two time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) is reportedly on for October or November says Dawson’s promoter Gary Shaw to fighthype.com. Shaw sees Dawson beating Hopkins and says he’ll stand in there and trade with him. That may be the only choice that Dawson has to win, because he won’t have much luck trying to move and pot shot Hopkins all night long.

We saw that strategy tried by Jean Pascal in his two fights against Hopkins and he was an utter failure. The only way that Dawson beats Hopkins is by standing in there with him and outworking him the way that Joe Calzaghe did by throwing nonstop quick flurries. That’s probably not really possible, though, because Dawson has stamina problems and doesn’t typically throw a lot of punches in his fights. Dawson can fight in brief spurts but not in any real extended manner. His trainer Emanuel Steward will have to make some major changes to Dawson’s game before October or November in order for Dawson to come out with a win against Hopkins. Dawson can win but only if he throws a lot of shots.

Dawson struggled in his last fight against Adrian Diacuno on May 21st, beating him by a 12 round decision but not getting hit a lot in the fight. Dawson threw mostly one punch at a time and when he would throw combinations, it was never more than couple shots. His legs looked heavy and his ring movements were also slow. Dawson could be showing signs of aging. But whatever the case, he’s going to have to fight Hopkins at close range to beat him. Dawson’s jabbing won’t win the fight, not against a popular fighter like Hopkins. It’s not going to happen.