This past weekend, the fight world witnessed a controversial ending to the Chad Dawson-Bernard Hopkins world light heavyweight championship bout. We all have our opinions on what the verdict should have been, but now its time for Boxingtalk readers to get the thoughts of the new champion’s trainer, John Scully.
Benny Henderson Jr.: John, what was your first thought when you saw Hopkins go down?
John Scully [trainer of Chad Dawson]: As soon as he went down I turned to cutman Rafael Garcia and said, “That’s it. He’s not going to get up, I know it!” I had seen this type of thing from him before too many times and I figured he would make a play for sympathy like he seemed to do with Roy Jones in their rematch and in several other fights.
BH: I do not know if you have anything to do with the decision making but if it was up to you, would there be a rematch between Dawson and Hopkins, or should Dawson go ahead with the rematch against Pascal [Dawson lost his title to Pascal, who lost it to Hopkins]?
JS: My feeling is that the rematch with Pascal is up next. I would assume that no matter how bad the injury to Bernard is, they will have to take a significant amount of time off to either heal from it it or to appear that they need the time to heal. Chad just cant afford to sit and wait for Bernard so he has to move on with his career.
BH: I am sure by now that you have gotten the chance to see the replay. Give us your most brutally honest opinion, was the referee’s ruling [of no foul, thereby making Dawson the winner by TKO] correct?
JS: A couple things, and this may just me being funny or me just nit-picking, but the fact is that if Bernard Hopkins didn’t have such terrible punching form in that moment none of this would have happened. He literally missed the right hand and catapulted his right leg forward so that he was forced to crash into Chad and onto his back. If he would have thrown his punches correctly then the only thing that happened would have been him missing the right hand.
Now for me Chad, merely didn’t allow Hopkins to crash on top of him and push him down. Hopkins is known to do things like that which are technically legal, I guess, but they are his way of manhandling an opponent and getting them out of their rhythm. Chad clearly came into this fight unintimidated and ready to react to whatever came his way, unlike some of Bernard’s previous opponents. Bernard finally ran into someone who was willing and able to match him in every department and I don’t think he liked it very much.
It would seem that as disappointing as it was for all involved, including myself, it was the correct thing to do. Chad didn’t commit a foul and Bernard was injured in the process and couldn’t continue. Robert Duran was accidentally injured against Pat Lawlor back in the early 1990’s and lost by a TKO because he couldn’t lift his arm. It sucks, but what else can be done? Chad had a notoriously sketchy and rough-fighting 175-pound man launched onto his back and he chose to get him off. He didn’t want to be manhandled and the fact is that Bernard Hopkins has shown many, many times in past fight his propensity for trying to physically and mentally intimidate opponents. He finally ran into someone who wasn’t having it.
