I am a fan of both of these guys but I have a strange feeling that Chad Dawson will beat Hopkins. I think Chad's methodical style will turn this into a slow fight. Coming off the high intensity fight of Pascal I think this will give Bernard trouble. I see another fight where Bernard just doesn't do enough to win.
My thoughts exactly. Dawson will fight behind that jab and take very little chances and just outwork Hopkins ala Taylor fights in a boring fight. And Hopkins will scream robbery.
Dawson is not active enough and always does the strict minimum, to beat B-Hop you have to be a super athlete with extreme workrate.
Hopkins doesn't have the tools to beat Dawson, which are mainly physical. Dawson can handle swarmers with power, he did this with Adamek, personally I believe he was about to take out Pascal before that BS stoppage off a non-serious cut, Dawson outclassed an excellent boxer in Tarver twice, beat Johnson once in a close one and then dominated him in the rematch. I see nothing Hopkins can do to beat Dawson and I'm willing to but the vCash and real cash behind it.
If Dawson fights BHOP like he fought last night, he's gonna get mauled and brutalized. Dawson has a mental weakness that BHOP will exploit. And I doubt Dawson stands up to any of the shots BHOP pounded Pascal with last night.
Dawson isn't mentally weak, if he was mentally weak he would have lost to Adamek and Glen Johnson, lets cut the BS.
Did you see his performance last night? And the one against Pascal? He is either unwilling or unable to let his hands go more frequently. He has alot of physical gifts, but he just does not use them. It's not his trainers, or distractions, or anything else. It's him. I've been watching him fight for several years now, from when he was 14 or 15-0. He reached his peak against Adamek, and has been declining ever since. If he goes in against BHOP and starts to get lazy, he is going to get beaten up.
Yes, I ve seen both performances, and I've also seen his performances against Adamek, Tarver, and Johnson as well, so explain to me looking at his whole body of work and the intense pressure fighters he has fought how you can say he is mentally soft? Fact is he is not mentally soft. The fact is the guy is just naturally passive and prefers to react and counter than actually press. Will it win him a great deal of fans? Nope. Does it mean he is mentally soft? Nope. It is just his natural inclination, "Bad" Chad can definitely bring it and dig deep when he needs to and he has excellent awareness, vision, relexes, and boxing IQ.