By Vitali Shaposhnikov: What should Bernard Hopkins do now? Fight, he should do what he does best, and that happens to be boxing.
Despite the fact that Chad Dawson (31-1-0) added the sixth loss to Hopkins’s resume, Bernard’s stock is still up there. Dawson, a much younger fighter, had to work much harder than most would assume a fighter would have to exert himself against an opponent old enough to be their father.
I can say with a clean conscience that Hopkins is not yet finished in making waves in the sport of boxing. Yes, he lost a fight to Chad Dawson, a well developed and seasoned fighter with ambitions and the heart to give it all. I agree with the decision, and think that Dawson outworked and even outsmarted the old school Hopkins in some instances during the bout.
The tragedy of this decision is what the fans and the writers might perceive it to be. The result did not come via a knockout or a complete shutout, nevertheless many people are already confident enough that Hopkins is done, and the he should immediately announce his retirement. But where is the common sense in that? Who can give me a clear reason to place the cap on Bernad’s career? I don’t see one, yet.
It has been 4 years and 6 fights prior to the fight this past Saturday since Hopkins had lost a bout. Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0) was the last man to beat Hopkins, with a 12 round decision victory.
Truthfully, I cannot say with full confidence that if Hopkins faced Dawson one more time, to clear the smoke so to say, that the result would undoubtedly be similar. I just can’t, because there is no reason to think in such fashion. We have all seen Hopkins resurrect inside the ring before, and I for one, believe in maybe one more of those surprising performances. Should Dawson work towards securing another fight against Hopkins? Probably not; the risk in a rematch would outweigh the benefit for Dawson.
If the fight did happen again, who would you have your money on? Before answering that, one thing to consider is that Hopkins has a tremendous ring IQ, and one would suppose he should do better in a rematch.