Bernard is really up against it tonight , I see him being outboxed early , then turning to his ugly style of holding and hitting , then throwing the headbutt in. This isnt crafty or old school , just plain holding that Hatton and Ruiz would have been proud of. He loses a fair decision then starts the blame game that got people thinking he didnt lose to Calzaghe - which he did clearly , he also lost clearly twice to Taylor. I just hope he doesnt pull the kind of tricks he did against Wright, in a fight I thought he was losing before throwing the head in and getting a gift of a decision. The book should be closed on Hopkins tonight , but it wont be pretty.
This is a VERY winnable fight for both fighters. This reminds me of Pacquiao and Mayweather a lot. They have certain weaknesses that plays to the other fighter. Chad is much younger, good jab and can hurt Bernard now because of his age. If he keeps his work rate up and prevents Bernard from raping him in clinches, then he can pull it off and maybe make it look easy. Then Chad mentally falls right in Bernard's hands. It doesn't seem like it'd be hard for Bernard to mentally phuck Chad into losing and if he does that and fights him rough, Chad will be in for some trouble. Then Bernard is 13-1 for southpaws, so we'll just have to see
Dawson has the tools to beat Hopkins, but mentally I think he has lost a little momentum and declined. The lightheavyweights are not great. Taylor and Calzaghe both beat Hopkins. The blueprint is there to beat him. Hopkins relies on guys to lose their gameplan. Much of Hopkins game is mental.