BERNARD HOPKINS

**** True to form, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins and “Bad” Chad Dawson managed to avoid fighting throughout twelve tense but uneventful rounds last Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Even with quasi-willing participants in the stands there was little enthusiastic violence to be found. Lost in the criticism decrying the dearth of action however, was a fight strategy predicated on psychological manipulation. Hopkins had prepared for more than his opponent: he was targeting subliminal messages at the viewer as well. The first step in his contrivance was evident as he stepped through the curtains wearing a black balaclava. [...]

**** Imagine anyone re-electing Nixon, or agreeing to sail on the Titanic II, or, having miraculously escaped execution by hanging, volunteering to face the gibbet once again. When Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson face off Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, it will be for the most familiar boxing reason of all: madness. Cause and effect, supply and demand, ying and yang—who needs any of that? In boxing, the closest thing to logic after more than a century of refinement remains the simple count of “10.” How a bomb as big as Hopkins-Dawson I can produce [...]

**** Instead of enjoying the afterglow of his stunning knockout victory over Fernando Montiel last February, Nonito Donaire spent the next few months in legal wrangles with Top Rank. Tomorrow night, however, Donaire returns to the ring against Omar Narvaez at the WAMU Theater in New York City. Unfortunately, despite a 35-0-2 record, a southpaw stance, and alphabet titles in two divisions, Narvaez is looking at the possibility of being temporarily separated from his senses.

**** In outpointing rugged Tony Bellew over 12 bruising rounds at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on Saturday night, Nathan Cleverly took one step closer to the world stage. In addition, Cleverly and Bellew underlined the superiority of British boxing when compared to the erratic American scene. Less than five months after causing a ruckus when he originally challenged Cleverly to a fight (a bout that was scrapped because of weight issues), Bellew was in the ring swapping punches with the man he promised to make his accountant. In America, a fight like this would take years to make, with [...]

**** The bar was set so low it was thought even Bernard Hopkins, connoisseur of stink, and Chad Dawson, ambassador for the nondescript, couldn’t limbo under it. Yet, arms locked with torso horizontal to knees, they managed easily to clear it. Saturday night, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Dawson ducked as Hopkins leaped in with a right hand late in the second round, then shrugged off the 46-year-old after he ended up draped over his back. Hopkins, now 52-6-2, fell awkwardly on his left arm, and immediately began yelling in anguish. Deemed unable to continue due to [...]

**** Bernard Hopkins goes into Saturday night’s fight with Chad Dawson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California with an underdog status he is now accustomed to. Dawson, 17 years his junior, presents another challenge in Hopkins’ two decade long career, a career that has recently become erratic.

***** Bernard Hopkins embarrassed Jean Pascal last night before a crowd of over 17,000 at the Bell Centre in Montréal, notching a fairly easy unanimous decision over 12 ragged rounds and crashing the history books by becoming, at 46, the oldest man to win a generally acknowledged world title. The final scores were 116-112, 115-113, and 115-114, with the final two tallies uncomfortably close. After Chad Dawson imitated a man in a waking coma against Adrian Diaconu in the semi, Hopkins-Pascal looked like the battle for Stalingrad by comparison. Without Dawson-Diaconu as a wretched baseline, however, Hopkins and Pascal put [...]

***** Regardless of whether you thought the draw was just in last December’s fight between Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal, Hopkins, 51-5-2, won the event by shocking nearly everyone when he consistently pushed forward behind sharp body work and accurate right hands. Pascal, on his heels for two-thirds of the bout, did little to look like he was 18 years Hopkins’ junior.