Hopkins Aiming For Dawson Loss To Be overturned For DQ Win, Not A No-Contest

By James Slater: Yesterday, the legal team of light-heavyweight legend Bernard Hopkins put in an official appeal over the 46-year-old’s controversial 2nd-round TKO loss to Chad Dawson. This has been reported by ESPN.com and was totally expected by everyone. However, what perhaps wasn’t expected was the fact that Hopkins’ legal people, acting under the orders of Hopkins of course, are shooting for a DQ win for B-Hop, not for the current result being overturned for that of a No-Contest.

Hopkins, who has had a MRI scan (he gets his results this coming Friday morning), is adamant: Dawson deliberately fouled him with the clear intention being to hurt him.

“Dawson should be disqualified because that was no accident,” Hopkins said to ESPN.com when speaking of the controversial moment in the 2nd-round of the fight, when Dawson lifted up and then threw down the defending light-heavyweight champ. “I think it should be a DQ because it was intentional. He intended to hurt me, period. I believe that it wasn’t a move boxers do, but the game-changer came when he wrapped his arm around my leg and threw me to the canvas. That makes me argue the intent was to hurt me. I will live and die with that.

“I think I’ve watched it 30 times. How does the referee miss that and give him a knockout?”

Hopkins, now wearing a sling and taking medication, also said he hopes the damage to his shoulder is not serious, so that he can “get started on rehab and set up what I’m going to do next.”

It sounds clear, then – Hopkins has no plans to call it quits and retire. But what about Dawson; should he have his win taken away and replaced with a DQ loss?

To most fans (those who have left comments on this web site especially), a No-Contest would have been, and now will be, the fairest result to be applied. Some say Dawson’s foul was an accident, some say it was an entirely legal move. But in light of how Hopkins was unable to continue, the TKO win Dawson was awarded does not seem fair with too many people.

But will Hopkins settle for a No-Contest? There is no way (in my opinion anyway) that the current result will stick, put it that way; Hopkins WILL get to keep his title – either with a No-Contest or a DQ. Ring Magazine seem to have seen this coming, as the publication has Hopkins retaining his position as world champion “pending the results of the appeal.”

You watch, B-Hop will still be Champ when all the smoke clears.