By Dan Ambrose: Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) isn’t playing it safe against WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) on October 15th. Dawson, 29, plans on going out there and knocking the 46-year-old Hopkins out in front of a packed Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California.

Although Dawson knows he can easily outbox Hopkins, he wants to make sure he takes the judges out of the equation by pressing the fight against the aging Hopkins and being the first guy to knock him out.

“There’s nothing Hopkins can do,” Dawson said in an interview at fighthype.com. “He can’t match my speed and he can’t match my power…I know I can be the first to knock Bernard Hopkins out. That’s a big accomplishment for me, to knock Bernard out.”

I agree with Dawson. He’s the faster and stronger puncher compared to Hopkins. But I don’t see him knocking Hopkins out. It’s not easy to knock out a guy that moves around like Hopkins does. Besides that, he’s got a great chin. For Dawson to knock him out, he will have to really jump on him and flurry like he did against Jean Pascal in the 11th when he had him hurt.

Dawson won’t know Hopkins out with one shot, and that’s kind of how Dawson was fighting his last bout against Adrian Diaconu last May. Dawson’s new trainer Emanuel Steward has him going away from throwing combinations and using his jab, fighting tall and throwing less shots. I don’t know if it’s Steward’s idea to throw less combinations than before, but that was how Dawson fought Diaconu.

Dawson can outbox Hopkins by jabbing and picking him apart, but he won’t knock him out. For that to happen Dawson will have to take chances by opening up with sustained flurries. And if he fights like that, Hopkins will have his moments too by slipping some shots in between Dawson’s fast punches. Dawson is going to be fighting with a lot of adrenalin, and I have no doubt he can get away with flurrying on Hopkins all night long without gassing out. That’s really his best bet if he’s determined to take out Hopkins.

Ideally, Dawson just needs to focus on trying to get the win by out-boxing Bernard. If he gives him a chance to land some of his counter shots, Hopkins can win rounds even if he’s being out-landed by a wide margin. Dawson isn’t just facing Hopkins, he’s facing his popularity among the crowd. That kind of popularity will show itself in crowd noise, and the judges will obviously be responding to Hopkins’s fans even if he’s really getting riddled by Dawson. Who knows? It may actually take a knockout for Dawson to get the win. I hate to see him get jobbed out of a decision but he is the less popular fighter in this bout.