This Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a pair of fighters who hail from about 3,000 miles away headline a pay-per-view card labeled ?Believe it or Not? which perhaps should have ?ONLY on pay-per-view and held in L.A.!? attached to its title. The main event features a bout between WBC light heavyweight titlist Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson in a fight that doesn?t figure to be long on fireworks but of course, those connoisseurs of ?skill? will undoubtedly salivate over this match-up.
Let?s be honest; Hopkins-Dawson is a lot like Limburger cheese (http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/LimburgerCheese.htm). Yeah, Limburger cheese.
A boxing insider said it to me best about this fight: ?Steve, it?s like this; some people like Limburger cheese, think it?s the greatest thing ever. They love it. Me, personally, it stinks so bad, I can?t get within 50 yards of that stuff. It?s just not for me.? Hopkins-Dawson is a fine delicacy to some. To others, it?s just plain rancid.
I think that?s the best way to state it. There are those who marvel at what Hopkins has been able to do the past decade or so at his advanced age, where he has arguably become the most accomplished boxer ever past the age of 40 (maybe surpassing the notable achievements of Archie Moore and George Foreman) but Hopkins- like Limburger cheese- is an acquired taste. It?s not for everyone. Some see a skilled craftsman who uses all his experience and guile to neutralize his opponents. Others see just a dirty fighter whose fights devolve into mauling, dirty affairs.
He?s good at what he does, no doubt. It?s just not for everybody.
As for Dawson, well, he has become the poster child for the modern-day boxer who performs in such a dispassionate manner that you wonder if he?d rather be pushing numbers in a cubicle than throwing punches in the squared ring. However, he is also a talented craftsman who has all the tools along with a safe and cautious style and temperament. You could argue that Dawson?s greatest skill is in having Gary Shaw- his television packager- hustle and con the brass at HBO into believing that he was one of the pillars of their future. Instead, Dawson has become another boxer on the network who has consistently earned seven figures while fighting in front of six-figure audiences. Shaw has given up creating any pretense of him being a live draw by farming him out to Canada, where the duo can collect fat checks by not even forking out a few hundred dollars to conduct conference calls with the media to publicize their upcoming bouts.
Hopkins-Dawson is one of the hook-ups that some will deem as ?important? for whatever reason. Maybe because it features two of the highest ranked 175-pounders in the world but as discounted seats are being offered to VIPs at the Staples Center, you have to ask yourself, like a Sergio Martinez, if so few people want to see a fight or fighter, just how ?important? could it really be? The attendance on Saturday night might resemble more a Sparks game than even a Clippers contest. Truthfully, this fight was never made because of any deemed significance or public demand but because it was essentially mandated and caused by inept corporate decision making.
