By Dan Ambrose: 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s) is finally starting to show signs of aging after he was made to look average in the two rounds of his last fight against Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KO’s). Hopkins will get a chance to prove that fight was just a blip on the radar screen when he faces the 29-year-old Dawson next month on April 28th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This is a big fight for Hopkins because the last time left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of boxing fans towards Hopkins when he was injured in the 2nd round against Dawson. A lot of fans think Hopkins took the easy way out of the fight rather than sticking around and trying to earn the win. Hopkins didn’t get the win and neither did Dawson, as the WBC and the California State Athletic Commission overturned the initial 2nd round TKO win for Dawson by changing the results to a no contest after an appeal was made by Hopkins’ promotional company Golden Boy.

For Hopkins to win this fight he’s going to have to find a different gear to get past Dawson, because the gear that Hopkins was fighting Dawson in last time was too slow. Dawson was faster, stronger and was taking the fight to Hopkins. You could see it in Dawson’s eyes and manner that he was dead serious about wanting to beat Hopkins and punish him.

Dawson’s goal for this fight on April 28th is to beat Hopkins bad and send him into retirement. It’s going to have to be a real slaughter for Hopkins to react by retiring. I can’t see him retiring no matter how badly he gets beaten, because there will still be money to be made against old timers or some of the paper champions at light heavyweight.