And waited for him to lose to Pascal, and then immediately makes a fight with Pascal? He always tried to justify Dawson not being a worthy opponent, so how does that suddenly make Dawsons conquerer (Pascal) worthy?:think
always thought Dawson was ducking Hopkins due to the low reward / high risk thing, but that was more my opinion as I don't know the whole story.
^ Exactly. He knows he will have a hard time at this stage dealing with quick, slick, and fundamentally sound boxer. He jumped on Pascal because he obviously sees something he can exploit! Pascal got the win over Dawson but is definitely more flawed. Hopkins UD
Dawson hadn't really earned his shot. Maybe if Dawson had won against Pascal to become lineal champ at 175, Hopkins would've fought him.
atsch Dawson had a better resume than Pascal has now, and was undefeated. Besides, you can't crown a lineal champ at 175 lbs without involving Hopkins anyway, he is still top 2 in the division.
Your avatar is hard to look at man...Jermain Taylor is a class act all the way. He may have gotten sparked that night against Carl Froch (even though he had the fight won if he had stayed on his feet), but you won't find a more humble man in defeat or more of a class act than Jermain Taylor. Even Carl said something to that effect after the fight. I hope he didn't suffer too much irreversable damage in those two fights. Good question regarding Hopkins and Dawson, I'd always wondered why those two never met in the ring. I always wanted to see Dawson challenged in a big fight, but I didn't think Pascal would be the one to finally do it.
IMO Dawson style troubles Hopkins at this stage of Hopkins career.A good boxer that uses movement to create his opporunity to get off his shots..Works behind a jab and has good hand speed along with good footwork. That alone gives Hopkins fits.
Hopkins is 46 years old and deserves to cherry pick, especially if the man he picks is universally recognised as the best LHW in the world. Dawson is in his prime, and would be a bad style match-up for Hopkins. In his prime, BHop would have annihilated him, though.
People are going to (or likely already did) bring up that he avoided Dawson and ****, but in reality, for the payday Hopkins fights, there was no way the fight could've happened, at least pre-Pascal. Dawson's fanbase can't pack a 3-legged pony and HBO was never ready to put 8 million down for a fight that wouldn't generate $2M. Dawson beating Pascal for the lineal belt and then beating Cloud would've helped his stock grow, but then he lost. You can't really complain what a soon-46yo fighter does or not do, and at the end of the day, he's fighing a better fighter in front of some 22.000 Pascal fans for better recognition (world LHW championship) than Bad Chad ever had.