By Dan Ambrose: WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) thinks his opponent 29-year-old Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) thinks he’s in the wrong business and feels he should be in golf rather than boxing because of Dawson’s relaxed manner.

In an article at Yahoo Sports, Hopkins said Dawson “Fights the way his personality is. It doesn’t make him a bad guy. It’s just who he is. I just think he might be in the wrong business. I look at Chad Dawson as a guy ought to be in the golf business.”

To be sure, Dawson is a little laid back compared to some fighters. However, the results that he produces have generally been positive. He’s only lost one fight and that was against Jean Pascal in a bout that was halted in the 11th due to a cut. Dawson does tend to lack passion at times, as he fights in spurts depending on how motivated he is. When Dawson is easily winning, he sometimes loses focus and drifts. But when it’s a competitive fight, he does quite well.

Dawson may not even need to be firing on all eight cylinders to beat Hopkins because even a Dawson fighting at 75% is probably more than enough to beat Hopkins. You have to realize that Hopkins hasn’t really fought anyone in the past three years since his loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2008.

Since then, Hopkins has fought a slow Kelly Pavlik, Enrigue Ornelas, Roy Jones Jr and Jean Pascal. None of those guys are in the same league as Dawson. None of them have Dawson’s size or boxing ability. Jones may have earlier in his career but not the 41-year-old version that Hopkins fought on that night.

So what we really have is Hopkins having been matched against guys that he can succeed against. He won’t be able to succeed against Dawson. This is the wrong guy, the wrong kind of fighter and the wrong style for Hopkins. He’s going to lose to Dawson and it won’t matter if Dawson is enraged or calm and relaxed as he boxes his way to a decision. Dawson will win because he’s got too much talent on his side. Hopkins will lose because he’s too old and he’s facing a guy that’s simply better than him.

Hopkins says he wouldn’t want to fight Dawson if he had the same attitude that he possesses, saying “I wouldn’t fight him. Are you crazy? With his talent and my attitude? Would you be trying to get me killed? I wouldn’t fight him.”