By Dan Ambrose: On Saturday night you’ll likely be seeing the passing of the baton from the old – WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) to the young – Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s) at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California.

It’s a right of passage where the old give way to the young and for the 46-year-old Hopkins, it’s time for him to give way to the young. Although Hopkins and his hand of followers think Dawson will be defeated on Saturday, they’ll soon discover that talented youth beats old age pretty much every time.

I expect Hopkins to try every trick in his toolbox to try and turn back time against Dawson, using tricks like wrestling, punching and grabbing and whatever else he can come up with. None of it will work, though, as Dawson’s youth and speed will make Hopkins look closer to 80 than 50, and it’s going to be an example of what happens when you stick around a little too long in the sport.

I think Hopkins is a great fighter and capable of beating guys like Jean Pascal, Roy Jones Jr. and Kelly Pavlik now. But Hopkins won’t be able to beat Dawson, and there’s not much he can do to change that on Saturday. The only question is how Hopkins will deal with the domination.

Will he decide to flop on the canvas and/or hold all night long? I’d much rather see Hopkins fight tooth and nail and lose than resorting to trying to put the fight into one big stall in order to slow the fight down to one where he can manage due to his old age. But I’m guessing Hopkins will elect to slow it down and will find that Dawson isn’t going along with the problem.