Did the first Hopkins-Dawson fight, do anything to change your opinion.....

Me. I thought Dawsons "workrate" (such as it is) would suit Hopkins but on the evidence of the first fight I'd take Dawson to win.

 

Yeah same as Gaz, thought Dawson would walk into a chess match with B-Hop but after that round I'm not to sure. I think B-Hop and his team see something though as he took the rematch. I'll still be pulling for Hopkins but that 1 round has really made me doubt Hopkins.

 

Hopkins was down twice in the first couple rounds against Pascal. we all know what happened next.

Add in Dawson never "shows up" two fights in a row and i'll be lumping on Bernard in the rematch

 

The pace was all really. If he could keep that up for 8 rounds I can't see hopkins managing to punch with him or match his speed and work rate. In my opinion a solid work rate and high pace is the best way to beat this Hopkins. He'll try and slow you down tie you up and what ever but he really needs to dictate the pace for him to win these days. He picks his opponents very carefully so he can do this. Up until the night of the fight I thought he had picked another one but Dawson seemed to want to set a very fast pace by his standards.

It is a bit much though basing it off less than 3 minutes plus I haven't watched the fight since that night so I could be well off here. Like you say though B-Hop does take a while to warm to a fight and Dawson hasn't been known to keep that sort of pace. Seeing that he was willing to set that pace though shows what way his camp was thinking as well.

Again very hard to base a fight on less than 1 round but Dawson showed he can do a few things I didn't expect him to do.

 

I didn't learn much from those couple of rounds or whatever it was either. If someone changed their opinion of who was ganna win based on that, i'd like to hear it too. To me, Chad looked aggressive and he came to fight, but he was also showing slight signs of becoming frustrated. I think he would've missed more and it would've been interesting to see how it might have unfolded. Mentally Hopkins has all the advantages but physically Dawson has the upperhand at this juncture and his technique ain't bad either. But Hopkins' gameplan was to frustrate and take away Dawsons bread and butter punches and cut his output, and then counter punch him and ambushing him with lead right hands from the outside as Dawson is like a deer in headlights when he's pressing the fight, then handcuff him on the inside with clinching. Nobody knows how well that would've worked out as the fight went on and those two opening 'feeling out' rounds certainly didn't tell us. But Chad would've been very susceptible to those tactics.

 

As i was watching it i was not concerned at all, I thought Hopkins is figuring out the angles, Dawson will not be able to keep the pace up and from 4 onwards it'll becomes one way traffic. I really didnt see hopkins getting bashed up or anything, was just business as usual except dawson was working harder than he usually does.

 

I fancied Dawson last time but although he done well, I don't think you can put too much into the last fight as Hopkins takes a few rounds to start adapting and turning the fight.

 

I thought Hopkins bitched out of the fight tbh and wouldnt fnayc him in the return. Had backed him to win the 1st match