By Dan Ambrose: In facing the 46-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins on Saturday, Chad Dawson is basically in a no-win situation here. It doesn’t matter how badly he beats Hopkins, he’s not going to get credit for it because of Hopkins’ advanced age.

That’s a built in excuse right there, which is why a lot of fighters don’t like to take older guys because there’s no real gain for when you beat them. And if Dawson loses to Hopkins, it’s going to be a crushing blow to Dawson’s career because of how old Hopkins is. Even if Dawson wins but struggles, it still lessens him as a fighter.

There’s no positive for him other than payday he gets for winning this fight. I see it as a easy win for Dawson where he wins every round without fail, although I see Hopkins complaining afterwards he should have won the fight. Hopkins will likely complain long and hard and may end up convincing some boxing fans that are partial to him.

But it won’t be close, believe me. I’ve seen both of the recent Hopkins vs. Jean Pascal fights and Hopkins looks painfully slow, short and unable to fight hard for three minutes of every round like he once did. But he’s still too small and slow to beat Dawson even in his prime years. Dawson is so much bigger and better than Hopkins that it’s not even funny.

It’s sad to see gullible boxing fans believing that Hopkins is going to win this fight. All I can say is those same fans will be educated on Saturday night and realize Hopkins’ limitations and figure out that Dawson is simply the best fighter in the light heavyweight division right now and has been for the last three to four years.