By Allan Fox: Former two time WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson believes that 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins faked his injury last time they fought in their controversial 2nd round non decision last October. Hopkins hurt his left shoulder when Dawson picked him up and dropped him late in the 2nd round.

On Saturday night, Dawson and Hopkins will be fighting for once and for all in an HBO non-PPV televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This time it’s for keeps and there can’t be anymore injuries that end the fight early.

Dawson said this at their recent press conference “I really don’t believe Bernard Hopkins was hurt. He showed that he really didn’t want to be in the ring with me that night.”

Dawson feels good about his chances in this fight, and sees Hopkins as having been looking for an easy way out of their fight last time out. However, it’s one of those things where you can never know for sure whether Hopkins was really injured unless you were Hopkins or his doctor. If X-rays or an MRI were shown by Hopkins to the boxing public to prove that he was really hurt, you’d still likely have to be a medical professional to determine whether he was indeed hurt or not. Some injuries aren’t detectable by X-ray and MRI, so even in the absence of physical proof, there still could have been a legitimate injury to Hopkins. One thing is for sure and that’s the 29-year-old Dawson needs to keep it clean if he wants to make sure that he doesn’t cause another injury to Hopkins or end up losing points on Saturday. Hopkins is 47 after all, and if you pick up and drop a fighter that age, injuries will likely occur. It’s not like Dawson is fighting a young guy in his early to late 20s, who can handle being fought in a rough manner.