Welcome to the Believe it or Not Prizefight Preview!
Step right up folks, come one, come all! Form a circle, don?t be afraid, the show is about to begin!
This weekend, we have an amazing 96-year old Bernard Hopkins taking on 18-year old Chad Dawson!
Believe it or not????!!!
All jokes aside, there will be no joking around once the curtain goes up and the 46-year old Hopkins, the current WBC and Ring Light Heavyweight champion, takes on 29-year old, young gun ?Bad? Chad Dawson in a match up of two of the highest rated 170-pound fighters in their weight class.
The championship event will be broadcast live on HBO PPV this Saturday from the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
In addition to what could be an epic night in the main event, a strong side-show will be held as a wrongly accused Dewey Bozella takes to the grand stage for the first time after being released from prison a few years ago, veteran Kendall Holt looks to razzle-dazzle once more coming off a spectacular big-top knockout, a dynamic duo of lightweights named DeMarco and Linares battle it out for a shiny crown, and the ?Magic Man? looks to make his Golden Boy Promotions debut both a magical and golden affair!
HOPKINS VS. DAWSON
The match up is the classic and quintessential ?youth vs. experience? bout that is seen very often in boxing, and now, on the grand stage with the HBO lights.
The 46 year old Hopkins looks to continue his historic twilight run as the oldest champion in fistic history, while Dawson looks to get used to being back into the ?W? column coming off his first career loss and a dismal decision win earlier this year.
Believe it or not, the young man and the old man will duke it out Big-Top style this weekend.
HEAD TO HEAD
In the power category, although Hopkins is a 50-plus win fighter,has not stopped an opponent since his 2004 middleweight title fight against Oscar De La Hoya, and Dawson is a 30 fight veteran with less than half of his wins coming by knockout, with 17 KO?s and his last coming by TKO in 2007.
With that in mind, skeptics feel the fight won?t be providing any knockdown melodrama fitting of a Big-Top event.
However, the KO talk has been thrown around, as of course it always does in the weeks heading into fight night.
Dawson has stated he is going to send Hopkins into retirement, which should have the charismatic Hopkins on alert mode and seeking to provide a stoppage due to the youngsters? brash talk.
Of course, none of us truly know what?s going to happen until the first bell rings and the fighters step toe to toe, do we?
SPEED
The speed category has to lean towards the 29-year old Connecticut native. Dawson has been recently credited by media, who chose to pull out a years old quote from a then retired Floyd Mayweather in 2008 pegging Chad Dawson as the most gifted active fighter in boxing.
There is no denying Dawson?s talent, as he has considerable attributes in any category you pick to point out, and his hand speed is something to be respected. In the foot category is where a question mark arises, as Dawson usually chooses to fight flat footed and pot shot from the outside.
So far, Dawson has only suffered one loss with his approach to the fight game, and one thing he will take in the ring against Hopkins is a speed advantage.
EXPERIENCE
Hands down, ?The Executioner? reigns high in this category. The former middleweight champion with a record 20 title defenses was sparring and using spit buckets years before Mr. and Mrs. Dawson chose to spawn what would become a boxer.
Alongside a top trainer in Brother Nazim Richardson, Team Hopkins arguably is the most experienced trainer-fighter combination in the sport, and even more arguably, in the history of the sport.
Believe it or not?!
Believe, because Hopkins brings the brains and the brawn along with his boxing gloves every time out.
SKILLS
If you believe Floyd Mayweather circa 2008, then Chad Dawson is one of the best in the game.
While it is a fact that Dawson possesses all the traits any young fighter hopes to achieve in his career, Hopkins is the ?been there, had those? type, as his varied styles over the years have molded him into a pugilist who can adjust to any style and adjust to any situation presented to him.
If the youthful Dawson chooses to throw fire from the outset, beware a Hopkins counter attack. If Dawson elects to go into the later rounds, well, that?s veteran territory.
Even with Dawson possessing just about all the skills to be desired, Hopkins can pull the rug out from under at any time.
Hopkins himself chimed in on Dawson?s high praise a few years back when he was on the minds of some of the greats of the sport and creeping up on pound of pound lists. Hopkins wished all of those people, assuming Mayweather himself, to tune in this weekend.
?Watch the performance. Watch the ageless warrior systematically break a young, strong, tall light heavyweight that everybody had high hopes of two years ago. And now they?re reserving that because they?re not sure because Bernard Hopkins is fighting him. They don?t understand and they don?t want to risk Bernard Hopkins making them look like a bad predictor.?
Skills: Dawson.
Skill killer: Hopkins
RESULT
Being as though the contrast in styles and lack of one punch KO power may provide a less than thrilling result, its hard to deny that by looking on the outside, Saturday night by very well become a pick em? fight. Add in all the intangibles, the ?pre-fight hype? with the weigh-in, and the stare down before the bell rings, and we could very well see old man Hopkins win the fight before a punch is ever thrown.
However, believe it or not, Dawson made a trainer change, stating he did such so he could be ?Bad? again.
Let?s just stay in the middle and keep our fingers crossed for a competitive fight, a?
Ok, ok, ok, bend the writers? pen, and it moves. I?ll take Hopkins in a competitive decision or stoppage.
UNDERCARD
Convicted felon Dewey Bozella spent decades behind bars after being falsely accused of murder. The aspiring boxer threw punches behind bars in dreams of a professional career someday, and even had the chance to be paroled out with a deal, given he provided a guilty plea.
Bozella gave no such plea and spent additional years behind bars, steadfast in his innocence. The East Coast native was finally freed a few years back, his innocence finally proven, and his dreams of a professional fight coming to life on the ?Believe it or Not? under card. The middle aged man recently tweeted that President Obama called him in support of his fight.
Now that?s a ?Believe it or Not? right there.
However, Bozella is known to hold true to the truth; not even a release from prison bars could make him lie.
Danny ?Swift? Garcia (21-0, 14 KOs) will be trying to make believers when he takes on vet Kendall Holt in a meaningful light-welterweight affair. A win sends a boxer up the ranks, and a loss sends them back down the ladder.
Will Holt be nimble, or will Garcia be swift?
Veteran Mr. ?Magic Man? Paulie Malignaggi makes his debut with Golden Boy Promotions in a match up against tough Mexican Orlando Lora in a welterweight contest.
The Brooklyn native and former champion is looking to once more make some ?Magic? happen with a win and a big fight in the future guided by his new promotional team.
Jorge Linares (31-1, 20 KOs) takes on Antonio DeMarco (25-2-1, 18 KOs) in a lightweight clash that could be a show stealer with two well matched up boxers taking center stage in the co-main event.
So step right up folks, come one, come all fight fans!
Hopefully by the end of the night, the naysayer is proven wrong and B-Hop and Bad produce a good quality showdown, alongside some magic and swiftness, with a side of Latin showdown on the side.
