There?s no better way to feel like a kid again than to have a lot of youngsters (at least by comparison) lining up to get a piece of you. That?s what Bernard Hopkins finds himself in the middle of, as he prepares for a championship fight and has others who are shooting for him.
Hopkins is ready to defend his newly-won WBC light heavyweight championship against Chad Dawson, a daunting task, in a bout that takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on October 15.
I can?t imagine none of this is welcome. Hopkins, who is age 46, needs to get those paydays while they are available, which is probably why there is already talk of a rubber match with Jean Pascal, from whom he took the 175-pound belt on December 18. Of course, if Pascal is interested in winning back his title, Hopkins would have to get by Dawson, although it is always possible that his connections can tweak some politics to get it done some other way.
Apparently he doesn?t have enough juice to cement a date with Tavoris Cloud, who currently holds the IBF title. But HBO would be all too happy to push a fight against Hopkins next year, or even Dawson, who Pascal defeated to win the WBC crown last August. Either of those proposed matches would bring a certain degree of intrigue.
Pascal out-hustled Dawson in that one, but he was still a little rough around the edges. That is what worked against him when he fought Hopkins, who enjoys the whole ?teacher vs. student? theme, which he invoked in some comments about the recent Mayweather-Ortiz fight, attributing Ortiz?s intentional head butt to frustration. ?The winners in this game are based on who knows the rules in the game of boxing and who knows what you can and can?t do,? he told Golden Boy Promotions? in-house magazine. ?And that often comes down to experience.?
Dawson is a pretty savvy fighter, and he doesn?t lack for experience, having scored some notable wins over the likes of Glen Johnson (twice), Antonio Tarver (twice), Tomasz Adamek and Eric Harding. His style may not be altogether pleasing, and he has not been through all that Hopkins has, but he is fundamentally-sound enough that Hopkins isn?t likely to catch him making a lot of silly mistakes.
Hopkins is so old that even James Toney is younger.
The 43-year-old Toney, who has fought just once in the last two years (at least in a boxing ring), wants his shot at Hopkins too. Of course, it is unknown how Toney would slim himself down, or how Hopkins would bloat himself, to make something like that happen. Toney was taken out in one round by Randy Couture in a UFC fight last August, and a fight with Ken Shamrock that was originally scheduled to take place on Friday may not happen at all.
