By Dan Ambrose: The understanding is that 46-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) injured his left shoulder when he slid off the back of Chad Dawson in the 2nd round of their fight last week on October 15th. When Hopkins injured his shoulder the referee ruled the fight a 2nd round TKO win for Dawson.

However, John Scully, the trainer for Dawson, remains skeptical about Hopkins’ injury. Scully had this to say about Hopkins’ injury: “I was just told that Hopkins corner put ice packs on his shoulder AFTER THE FIRST ROUND, BEFORE THE SECOND…if so…hmmm….WHY would they do that (before he was injured)???”

For now, the loss still counts in the record books until the California Athletic Commission reviews the fight in their next meeting in December. The World Boxing Council already overturned the results, ruling the fight a 12 round technical draw. The draw leaves Hopkins as the champion.

Some boxing fans think that Hopkins flopped and faked the injury to get out of fighting Dawson and possibly suffering an embarrassing loss. I don’t know what to believe myself, since I haven’t seen any x-rays or the MRI on Hopkins’ left shoulder. I won’t make up my mind about the injury until I see those things.

A lot of boxing fans won’t be happy until Hopkins proves that he’s better than Dawson by beating him. That unfortunately probably won’t ever happen because Hopkins’ promoter Richard Schaefer already said they won’t be looking to fight a rematch with Dawson. It might be better if Hopkins though, because at least if Hopkins gets beaten by Dawson, which is what I think will happen in a rematch, Hopkins will get cover for losing because Dawson is considered one of the best fighters in the division. But if Hopkins takes on a lesser fighter than Dawson and loses, it really will signal the end for Hopkins.

At this point I think Hopkins would have a really hard time beating the other champions in the light heavyweight division. Hopkins had the perfect opponent in his last two fights against Jean Pascal, who was pretty well spent by the 5th round, but the other champions are fighters that throw a lot of punchers.