Bernard Hopkins(the one fought Tarver) vs. Chad Dawson that he recently just fought

confusing thread... Then again, thinking isn't my best attribute, which is why I discuss an obscure topic like boxing and on a site like eastside...
Anyway, Prime Hopkins beats Dawson.

 

Chad would beat Bernard as far back as the time Bernard fought Taylor.

 

Of course the Hopkins that fought Tarver was much better. It is obvious. After all, that was SIX YEARS AGO. You can tell that Bernard was friskier and more active with hands and feet, and even his body obviously looked better. Plus he was up against a fighter who quite frankly was better than Dawson. And Bernard dominated. So yes I think the Bernard of six years ago beats Dawson.

 

Much more evenly matched, but I would probably give the slimmest of an edge to Dawson.

 

Are we talking about the same chad dawson who was beaten by jean pascal, the guy that b-hop beat twice? Please, stop trying to make him out to be something better than he is, just because he beat a 47 year old. Big deal. Revisionist history because BHop has finally gotten old is not fair to him. What other 47 year olds were beating elite guys in his division? So now Dawson is getting all this credit because he eeked the majority of rounds? Don't think so.

 

I'd like to think Hopkins would have taken more chances to get in on the inside and rough Dawson up, but then again, he didn't show too much initiative to do that when faced with the speed of Jermain Taylor at middleweight either.

I think it would be a closer fight, probably an either way sort of thing, but Bernard would likely always struggle with Dawson.

Prime Hopkins vs. a middle weight version of Dawson Hopkins takes it.

 

SAME RESULT!!!

Hopkins didn't actually deteriorate much in the time, Dawson still has the same speed and youth advantages. HE gets off quicker at any range and doesn't buy the feints

I'm not even sure on that, Hopkins is obviously greater and does better against a variety of styles, where as Dawson probably doesn't, but Dawson just has the style to beat Hopkins

 

Chad does have a good style to foil Hopkins, but I think a prime Hopkins had more of a willingness to mix it up. Perhaps even a pre-prime one which was a little rougher around the edges would do better.

For example, Bernard was quite willing to take it to Roy Jones, who had a superior offense to Dawson (injured hand notwithstanding). He tried to put quite a bit of pressure on Roy and had some success doing it.

I can see that type of Hopkins not messing around too much with the angles and simply gritting it out.

He would be quite a lot stronger than a middleweight version of Dawson and could probably impose himself a bit more. Dawson of course we could assume would be a tad less rangier too, which would help.

Hopkins always looked to outcraft fighters in his late 30's and in his 40's, but he was actually quite aggressive during his best years.

 

:good Dawson is rated too highly by many. He is average.

 

I'd take that version of Hopkins. His movement was more dynamic, and he was able to take bigger risks ambushing fighters on the inside, both of which were key to his success against Tarver. I'd expect to see more set up right hands, like so:

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Yea I see your point about Hopkins pressure maybe overcoming the speed of Dawson later on. Vanderpool outsped/outboxed him early then Hopkins moved on top after a bodyslam where Vanderpool looked to have hurt his hip actually, underrated scalp Vanderpool but Dawson is a bigger talent and the harder task

Dawson has actually come up from MW/SMW himself though moving to 175 for a title shot, so let's say he's as rangy with less bulk, same as Hops himself really.