Hopkins happy to be fighting southpaw Dawson, thinks he’ll do well

By Boxing News - 08/04/2011 - Comments

Image: Hopkins happy to be fighting southpaw Dawson, thinks he'll do wellBy Dan Ambrose: Bernard Hopkins defends his WBC light heavyweight title on October 15th against southpaw Chad Dawson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

46-year-old Hopkins is going into this fight the much older fighter, and thinks he’s going to have an advantage over Dawson because Hopkins has done well against southpaw fighters in the past. However, when you get up there in age you can’t really count on your past success equating to future success because of how much you’ve lost through age.

In an article at Ringtv, Lem Sattersfield points out that Hopkins has fought 10 southpaws in his career, beating nine of them. However, the guys that he beat were pretty much not in the same class as Dawson. Of the guys that Hopkins beat, Winky Wright is probably the best. However, Wright didn’t have the hand speed or the defensive ability that southpaw Dawson possesses, so you can’t really take much from that.

Hopkins said this to ringtv: “I love fighting southpaws. I would rather fight southpaws than anybody.” Oh yeah, the last good southpaw Hopkins fought was Joe Calzaghe and he ended up beating Hopkins by a 12 round decision three years ago. Hopkins hasn’t gotten better since then. He’s clearly aged, and now he’s fighting Dawson, someone who is arguably a better fighter than Calzaghe. That’s no disrespect to Calzaghe, but I think Dawson is the better fighter. Hopkins is three years older facing a better fighter. That’s not good.

Hopkins past success against southpaws has to be looked at with the view of the guys he beat. The southpaws Hopkins beat were as such: Robert Allen, Winky Wright, Syd Vanderpool, Joe Lipsey, Darrin Oliver, John David Jackson, Antonio Tarver, Keith Holmes, Carl Daniels and Keith Holmes. I’m not all that impressed with that bunch, because Dawson already beat one of the best fighters of the bunch Antonio Tarver and beat him twice in fact.

Hopkins’ advanced age and the fact that he’s fighting a fast southpaw with amazing defensive skills in Dawson, it just doesn’t bode well for Hopkins. I can’t see him duplicating the success he had in the past in this case. I see Hopkins failing big time in this fight and losing by a fairly lopsided score. Hopkins is tailor made for Dawson. Indeed, he’s more tailor made for Dawson than his last opponent Adrian Diaconu, who Dawson beat by a wide 12 round decision.



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