Give Bernard Hopkins His Dues

He shouldn't even be fighting anymore at his age , never mind willingly tracking down the very best Light Heavyweights in the world. He has his flaws and weaknesses just like anyone else, but the guy's a certified badass through and through.

 

I said the exact same thing in another thread.

After beating Pascal, he could have retired on top. There wasn't any need for him to accept Dawson's challenge. And after that disastrous incident, again, there wasn't an overwhelming demand to step back in with him. Stylistcally, Dawson's a bad fight.

Full respects to the old man.

 

All the talk of "Hopkins fears Dawson, he never wanted to fight him and looked for a way out" has been rightfully exposed as pure nonsense

 

Hopkins,like many other old timers,is in denial.It's over.

 

did he not get payed for his last so called fight..? as he will get payed again in the second fight but this time he will say i ****in tripped on the matt logos...are they legit...or my corner stool is to low...i hurt my knee. or something like that as usual, great fighter but his shananagins are getting old...as he is to.

 

Until he does it again in the rematch.

 

tbf a lot of his injuries these days relate to his age. He would proabably have not popped ou this shoulder when falling if he had been 25, but with all the muscle mass attrition in the tiny muscles that bind the shoulder to the arm being irreplaceable at his age, he is just asking for more injuries. Not just around the shoulder but all over his body. The reason he gasses out against Cal and Co is that hes been losing those tiny rib breathing muscles and hence shi stamina for over a decade now, and he simply cant tune up those muscles, no end of weight training will replace them.

In particular, once a shoulder is popped it gets easier to pop out in future. Thats just one of his injuries he carries -the man is really walking wounded and shouldnt beallowed anywhere near a boxing ring.


So admiration is due but also a recognition thats hes doing an Ali - hes putting his future wellbeing on the line for no reason other than to prove a point that hes already proved. In other words, the biggest impact that Hopkins is making by fighting on is to not us readers or Dawson, but to himself - and its where bravado becomes madness.

 

This is actually a great post, but you have to question if Hopkins is not simply delusional to keep fighting young guns like this.

Anyway, if he wins, I will turn into the worst Hopkins nuthugger there ever was.

 

I wont believe the fight is happening until Hopkins is in the ring with Dawson. If Hopkins does go through with it, then fair play to him, but it seems last time Hopkins was looking for a way out and found it.
Has there been any proof of the injuries Hopkins claims he had against Dawson?

 

If it weren't for PEDs hopkins would have been gone a long time ago

 

the xray of a disconnected shoulder would be pretty conclusive imho.

 

Years ago sure, but today? Screw Hopkins. He is the only fighter I hate on and I do it because I feel he is both bad for the sport and ripping off the fans with his BS antics.

He isn't ducking because he wants/needs his belt to negotiate any decent fights going forward.

 

Was there one produced to the WBC?

 

you need to ask them, mate. but one thing is for sure, an x-ray of such cant be faked.

There are only a few fractures/breaks in the body that can be faked as far as I know eg. inner bone of the wrist. All the others show up on an xray,and a disconnection especially is very visible.

It would look something like that on x-ray, as you can see, its obvious even to the untrained eyes that the top of the arm is sitting in the little cup where it meets the shoulder, its dropped below it and is 'in' the ribcage.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Luxation_epaule.PNG