By Dan Ambrose: 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins thinks he’s going to be able to match the fast pace, speed and the energy that challenger Chad Dawson will be bringing to their fight at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hopkins says he’s not a typical 47-year-old fighter, and that what would work on a normal fighter that age won’t work on him on Saturday.
We’ll have to see about that, because Hopkins didn’t look at all good last October in their fight that was cut short by Hopkins’ shoulder injury. He looked like he was on his way to losing that one because each time he’d land a pot shot, which was pretty much all Hopkins could do, Dawson would answer back with combinations.
Hopkins said “What happens where he matches the same energy and matches the same speed and he isn’t breathing.”
Let’s be clear on this: Hopkins wasn’t matching Dawson’s speed or work rate last time they fought. Hopkins was moving and trying to elude Dawson for the most part. When Hopkins did come at Dawson, the younger fighter easily backed away and fired off long jabs to the head of Hopkins. But Hopkins wasn’t matching Dawson’s speed or energy during the brief going.
It was still too early in the fight for either fighter to be breathing, so it’s no big surprise that Hopkins wasn’t tiring. However, he was making sure that he got plenty of rest breaks by clinching Dawson from time to time, and you can expect that to be part of his strategy for the rematch on Saturday. Expect to see Hopkins clinching 10+ per round to slow the fight to an almost unwatchable crawl.
I think there’s no real choice in the matter for Hopkins. He’ll have to clinch and flop otherwise he’s going to get embarrassed by Dawson. Even those two fight stalling tactics, Hopkins will still get beaten.
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