“Dawson is just a lil’ better than Robert Allen”
GL: What’s the latest and greatest X? How is everything in going in preparation for your October 15 HBO PPV showdown with Chad Dawson? “Everything is going good here Greg, we’re on our busy schedule like we’ve been for the last five weeks. I’m just coming down to the final stretch as far as training, and after 10 years you know you’re getting before the rest of the media next week. But I feel good, I feel more rejuvenated than ever before. Sparring has been fantastic and I cannot wait to put on another ageless performance.”
GL: What do you feel is your biggest advantage coming into this fight?
Bernard Hopkins: “My IQ.”
GL: In your opinion has Dawson’s IQ stagnated or decreased from a few years back when he was fighting Adamek and first fought Tarver?
BH: “Far as his level and where he’s at, he’s right where he needs to be. But I set the bar so high that to me, I go by his last performance and that was a B. I gave him a B and I know he was trying to work on some new things with Emanuel Steward. I can rate him as one of the top light heavyweights out there, but there’s not a whole pool out there like when I was representing the middleweights. You had a pool of three or four guys who could have been champion if I wasn’t there. I will say this, he still brings everything he brought two years ago when they were trying to shove him down my throat for charity. Now I’ve created an atmosphere where I give him a higher lesson and do him a favor by putting a few more bucks in his pocket than he would have made then. I’ll say this man, I will say I’m coming to put on a performance and I hope he is, because that will bring out the best in Bernard Hopkins.
“When guys come and they’re trying to prove a point that it’s their time, then I will be at my best. I just can’t dance without having a dance partner. I can, but when you’re stepping on your dance partners feet it’s not going to look as good.”
GL: Your track record against southpaws speaks for itself. As a student of the game where you rank Dawson amongst the southpaws you’ve already faced?
BH: “I fought a lot of southpaws Greg, I’ll say he’s about the tallest southpaw I fought, but he don’t fight tall. I will say he’s a little bit better than Robert Allen, but just a lil’ bit.”
