By Allen Fox: Former two time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson goes into this Saturday’s fight against WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins as the underdog at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
It only took one loss to Jean Pascal for Dawson to go from being considered the best fighter in the division to somewhere around number #3. Dawson, however, wants to show that his loss to Pascal was a fluke thing when he takes on the 46-year-old Hopkins and schools him.
Dawson said this about Hopkins at their recent conference call: “I’m here to prove everybody wrong. The critics have been doubting me for years.But on October 15th, I will prove everybody that I’m the best light heavyweight in the world, still.”
Hopkins is already looking past Dawson, thinking of fights against the likes of Lucian Bute and Sergio Martinez. At 46, the last thing that Hopkins can afford to do is look past a skilled fighter like Dawson, because Hopkins really hasn’t faced anyone really talented and/or still in their prime since he lost to Joe Calzaghe in 2008. And now he’s facing a fighter that would likely have beaten Calzaghe if he had been given a chance.
Hopkins’ age may hold him back in this fight because he probably won’t be able to fight at a high pace that Dawson sets for too long before running out of gas and needing to hold or get some kind of timeout by the referee. It’s possible that he could flop enough times to get the needed rest breaks for him to beat Dawson, but I just can’t see it happening. He’ll end up getting penalized if he falls down too much, and if he’s too painfully obvious in trying to slow the fight down, it could hurt him with the judges.
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