By James Slater: It has been announced by a number of sources that world light-heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins will face Chad Dawson in a rematch of their controversial October 15th meeting on April 28th. The rematch was apparently agreed to by all parties yesterday. As fans know, the first fight was a huge letdown, with Hopkins being unable to continue after hurting his shoulder as he landed on the mat from a Dawson shove.
Originally ruled a 2nd-round TKO win for “Bad” Chad, the result was soon changed to that of a No-Contest, with ageless wonder Hopkins keeping his WBC title. Needles to say, the two bitter rivals have unfinished business – unfinished business that will hopefully get settled at The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in April.
Hopkins, 52-5-2(32) now aged 47 and closing in (finally) on retirement, said he is anxious to put 29-year-old Dawson, 30-1(17) in his place this time.
“I have a chance to settle the bull from the first fight,” Hopkins said. “A real athlete don’t want to win something on a disqualification or a no-decision. I’m ready to go. Dawson has a chance to prove to the world what he thinks he can do to me and I have a chance to prove that he’s not going to do what he thinks he going to do.”
Dawson’s promoter, Gary Shaw, had the following to say to USA Today:
“There’s real bad blood here. Chad knows everything that happened in the past, and he’s the bigger fighter, stronger fighter, younger fighter, maybe even the more skilled fighter. We have always believed he stops Hopkins around the 8th-round. And I give credit to Hopkins for stepping up and defending the title, which everyone said he wouldn’t do.”
Sure enough, it looked at one time as though neither fighter really wanted a return fight. Dawson, in his initial post-fight interview back in October said, “A rematch? No. What for?” While Hopkins spoke about maybe fighting a Lucian Bute or possibly even a Nathan Cleverly.
But now the return is on, and to make things better for the fans this time around, the rematch will not be on Pay-Per-View! Set to go out on regular HBO (a deal has yet to be signed, sealed and delivered, but Shaw is confident the fight will go out on the cable network), the intriguing sequel could also wind up having a potentially thrilling support bout.
According to USA Today’s piece, Shaw and Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy are looking at putting WBC 135-pound champ Antonio DeMarco in with Michael Katsidis on the card. Now, even if fans fear the Hopkins-Dawson rematch could be a largely dull 12-rounder, the planned support bout will surely be anything but dull if it goes ahead. Likely to steal the show as far as fireworks go, DeMarco-Katsidis has “war” written all over it!