Bernard Hopkins vs Chad Dawson [Staples Center]

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who takes it?

  • Total voters
    9
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#41
May 13, 2002
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#41
john scully is a good trainer, he's underrated. He's a good guy too and he taught Dawson everything he knows. It's actually a much better fit than I hoped.

Scully also brought in Winky Wright as a helping hand, who as we know fought Bernard and is telling/showing Dawson what to look out for etc.
 
Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Sicc OG
#42
May 6, 2002
7,218
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#42
Ya Winky saying he's a fighter giving tips.
Half way true. What's up with him? hasn't fought in almost 2 years and no one is looking in his direction.

That was funny when Bernard pulled out the milk carton.
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#43
May 13, 2002
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#43
haha that was classic. He was right though he straight disappeared after losing to bhop. Then resurrected from the ashes and lost to pwill, never to be seen again



I don't know what his deal is. I know historically he always asks for more money then he deserves so he sits on the sidelines. I think in a recent interview he plans on returning at the end of this year or early next. who knows. Maybe him and joshua clottey can negotiate with eathother as to who deserves more money.
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#44
May 13, 2002
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#44

Over 20 Years Later, Hopkins Still Finds Reasons To Excel

By Jake Donovan

It’s almost as if Bernard Hopkins looks for excuses to justify his still hanging around at the top level of the sport.

Five years ago, he sought a fight with – and easily handled – then-top light heavyweight Antonio Tarver just because he didn’t like the way his record-breaking middleweight title reign ended.

Three years ago, he claimed that back pay was his motivation. He still had enough left in the tank and wasn’t leaving until he collected on all of the paydays he believed he was cheated out of during his heyday.

Late last year and again this year, the history books were what he sought – and once again found his way into after capturing the lineal light heavyweight championship six years into the middle-aged portion of his life.

The only reason he comes up with answers to why he’s still here is because people keep asking.

The truth is that he still fights just because he can.

“I love boxing. I love the sport – and this guy (Hopkins) is boxing,” insists Naazim Richardson of the boxing student that has helped catapult the Philly-based instructor to one of the most sought-after trainers in the game today.

Richardson’s word alone is good enough for most, but Hopkins still chooses to back it up with his own actions. The career-long gym rat and fitness freak of nature is still going strong deep into the heart of life at middle age, mainly because he doesn’t feel like a middle-aged man.

"I chose to continue to fight and defend what I worked so hard to get,” Hopkins (52-5-2, 32KO) explained during a media workout Tuesday afternoon in Philadelphia. “So why not get all of the benefits of what I've been doing for 20-something years and then walk away when it's time?”

‘Time’ won’t be any day soon, or so it seems. His recent run has many in the industry crazy enough to believe that he’ll continue to fight and win at the elite level well after his October showdown with Chad Dawson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The matchup is four years in the making, first gaining legs when Dawson topped then-alphabet titlist Tomasz Adamek at a time when Hopkins was regarded as the best light heavyweight in the world, though one that was sitting on his lead.

Dawson spent three years seeking the challenge of the forty-something wunderkind as well as a few other elder statesmen in a division long held captive by a generation of fighters preceding his own. Four straight wins over Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver helped clear out of some of the clutter, as did Hopkins’ own loss to Joe Calzaghe, who would fight just once more – his off-the-canvas domination of badly faded Roy Jones - before calling it a career.

Even when Hopkins conquered – some say exposed – then-unbeaten Kelly Pavlik in their October ’08 catchweight bout, it wasn’t enough to bring any closer to reality a head-on collision with Dawson. In fact, just the opposite as Dawson was wooed by HBO from rival network Showtime, while Hopkins was frozen out altogether and forced to spend more than a year on the sidelines.

Still, the old man – only in age – refused to believe it was all he had left to offer the sport. He would retire from boxing, rather than being retired by the game and its politics.

With that came the comeback – a homecoming in a low-budget fight on Versus network against Enrique Ornelas in December ’09. Just enough to get reacquainted with the ring, and to secure a way-past-due rematch with old rival Jones, the only man to convincingly beat him in the ring way back in 1993 when they were rising middleweights.

The rematch win over Jones seemed to do more harm than good, as the fight was painful to watch and also a financial bust. It was enough to leave most to believe that it was the end and that plans should already be made for a June 2016 induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Hopkins is still Canastota-bound, five years from the day he decides to call it a career. But it won’t be 2016. At the rate he’s going, it might not even be by 2026 – and he could possibly still be fighting by then, although he has a slightly different view of what he’ll be doing in his sixties.

"It really would be gratifying to me and happy for me to sit back in my 60's and hear commentators say, "This guy is four fights away from beating Bernard Hopkins' record.”

The record he speaks of is his winning the light heavyweight crown at age 46, topping Jean Pascal – who beat Dawson last summer to capture the lineal crown - this past May in a rematch to their December ’10 fight most believe should’ve been the night in which history was served. Hopkins overcame two knockdowns and a disastrous start to dominate the back eight in their first fight, only to leave Canada with a highly disputed draw.

His first trip north of the border was enough cause to keep it stateside for the rest of his career, but far be it from Hopkins to leave a challenge on the table. So back to Canada he went five months later, pounding out push-ups in his corner in between bells and eventually a decision win to once again make the history books, nearly a decade after becoming the most successful middleweight titlist ever.

Five months later, he looks to close out unfinished business when he defends his crown against a rebuilding ex-champion more than 17 years his junior.

Hopkins has no issues with the gulf in age – Pascal is one year younger than Dawson. In fact, he now goes out of his way to remind ‘the next wave’ of what stands in its way of light heavyweight supremacy.

"I want my gray to be in the ring,” Hopkins says, of the fact that he refuses to dye his gray beard or shave it off for the sake of looking younger. “I want Chad Dawson to see I have gray hair. I want to look like his father. That age difference is appropriate for me to look like I'm gray and I have gray, because realistically, if you do the math, he could be my son.”

It’s also his way of sending the message that – given the lack of rising stars in the sport today – perhaps youth is being wasted on the young.

"There are a lot of people that are 46 and younger that feel lousy today that never took a punch. Well, change your lifestyle. Change what you do. I did it years ago, so I'm ahead of the game. I'm not feeling like I'm 26 every day. I always say if I have to put a number on myself, the way I feel today, I feel like I am 36. So if I'm 36 to 46, that means I'm 10 years ahead of the game."

Ten years ago, Hopkins was 36 going on 26 after topping then-unbeaten star Felix Trinidad to become the undisputed middleweight king, a moment he described at the time as “living the American dream.” The win was what most believed to be the completion of a redemption tour that began the day he left Graterford after serving nearly five years of an 18-year sentence.

Had Hopkins – who was sentenced at age 17 - served the entire stint, he’d have spent more than half of his lifetime in prison by the time he was sprung. Instead, he turned a negative into a positive, and made the most of the second chance he was given.

His most recent gym mate wasn’t anywhere nearly as fortunate.

In 1983, former amateur boxer Dewey Bozella was tried and convicted in the murder of a 92-year old woman six years prior. He was just 24 at the time he was served his sentence of 20 years to life in prison at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York, for a heinous crime he insisted he never committed.

For more than 26 years, he maintained his innocence, which finally came about in 2009 after a rehearing of the case revealed that evidence was withheld to purposely frame him for the crime.

Bozella was released in October 2009, and more than 18 months later was honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for overcoming perseverance. It was at that time when he revealed his dream to have just one pro fight.

At age 52, Bozella will get to live that dream on the undercard of Hopkins’ defense against Dawson, having been cleared and licensed by the California State Athletic Commission after an extensive series of medical tests.

As if he needed any more inspiration to continue on in a legendary career still going strong, seeing Bozella in the gym pursuing his dream has been enough to humble Hopkins and put his own amazing story in proper perspective.

"At the end of the day, what Dewey did is beyond anything that I've done in the ring,” Hopkins modestly concedes. “It is beyond anything I accomplished outside of the ring in my personal [life].”

It’s also enough of a reminder why he continues to live life the way he does – clean and on his terms.

"In today's world - unfortunately, most athletes either don't stay as focused long enough after they get a taste of what we call success in life, or just run into the wrong match, the wrong person. So I'm going to have fun in the second half of my life.”

And it will continue to come at the expense of everyone in his way.
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#50
May 13, 2002
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#50
lol honestly hopkins puts floyd and pacquiao both to shame this is just some of the guys hopkins has took on OVER THE AGE OF 40!


Pavlik - 34-0 (26 years old, 17 year age difference)
Dawson - 30-1 (29 years old, 17 year age difference)
Pascal - 26-1 (28 years old, 18 year age difference)
Calzaghe - 44-0 (35 years old, 8 year age difference)
Taylor 24-0 (26 years old, 14 year age difference)
Tarver - 34-3 (37 years old, 4 year age difference)
Eastman - 40-1 (35 years old, 5 year difference)

That's a combined record of 281-6 (this includes the two pascal/taylor fights ). LOL seriously. His resume post 40 shits on anyone else in boxing right now.


And the last time hopkins fought someone who was actually older than him was simon brown in 1998!
 
B

bigface

Sicc OG
#51
Feb 3, 2006
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#51
B-Hop has had a great run late in his career.. If he would've beat Taylor and Calzaghe I would gave B-Hop the edge over Mayweather. Truth be told I thought B-Hop won at least one of the Taylor fights and the Sloppy Joe fight.

B-Hop is in for a very hard fight. Chad feels like B-Hop has been ducking him for years and stoping him from becoming a star in boxing, so he's going to bring his A-game against the old grandmaster Hopkins. Chad has one of the best jabs in boxing and he can hurt you with his jab alone. Dawson also has boxing skills and very fast hands. Chad is not wild like Pascal, and he has hand speed and better punching power then Slappy Joe.
But Dawson is also a fucking nut job head case too, and B-Hop is the master of head games in the ring.. So this fight is going to be a close affair.
 
WYNO707X4

WYNO707X4

Sicc OG
#59
Feb 23, 2006
2,176
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#59
^^^^ never heard of or seen fight before....55 ill pass cuz dawsons fighting style fucken suckz it would proboly put me to sleep... hope hopkins wins
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#60
May 13, 2002
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#60
hopkins is a living legend, enjoy him while you can.

Holt is a god damn banger, he has true one punch KO power. Holt is coming off a 3 round KO of Julio Diaz.


This was the shot he nearly KO'd Timothy Bradley with. He dropped him three times



Danny Garcia is undefeated coming off wins over Nate Campbell & Mike Arnaoutis.
 
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