The Curious Case Of Bernard Hopkins

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

http://southpawjacks.wordpress.com/

'The Executioner'

When Oscar De La Hoya returned to his corner following the third round of a certain 2004 middleweight unification bout, he had to be pretty content with how the opening stanzas of the fight had unfolded.

As he positioned himself onto his stool, his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr placed both his hands upon the Golden Boy’s shoulders and beamed a smile before delivering an assured assessment of the opponent’s chances in the fight.

“The man’s an old man. Look at me, he’s an old man. He’s looking the worst that I’ve ever seen him.”

The old man who sat across the ring was a 39-year-old Bernard Hopkins. Throughout those opening rounds, a 31-year-old De La Hoya had outworked the bigger and stronger fighter with greater activity and hand speed, with Hopkins looking as sluggish and as ‘old’ as Mayweather Sr suggested.

Pascal-Cloud officially cancelled! Cloud Vs Murat is next...

The anticipated light-heavyweight showdown between Tavoris Cloud and Jean Pascal will not take place in 2012. The fight has been on and off for a few weeks now but it has now been confirmed that it will not happen this year.

The fight was initially scheduled for August 11th but was postponed due to a hand injury suffered by Pascal. The teams and promoters were then desperately trying to make the fight happen in any of the later months of this year but too many problems arose meaning that it was almost impossible to make the fight happen in 2012. Pascal will now return in December against an opponent that is yet to be announced. Cloud will now defend his IBF world title against the mandatory challenger Karo Murat. A date for this fight hasn't been confirmed but it will most likely take place in November. The fight between Pascal and Cloud will no doubt happen, just not this year.

"We wanted to make the fight in 2012, but it was too early to do it in October and it was impossible to book the Bell Centre in November with Lucian Bute fighting and Georges St-Pierre. December was a possibility, but Murat felt the delay was too long and he knew that his outlandish requests were rejected. I do not blame him, he has been waiting for a while," said Pascal's promoter Yvon Michel.

"Cloud will simply meet his obligations as a champion. I believe that Cloud should not have any difficulties with Murat. If all goes well, we will keep the same agreement, with Cloud and Showtime, and make the fight in the spring [of 2013]."

Dawson willing to move down to fight Ward...

'Bad' Chad Dawson.

WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson has revealed that he is tired of fighting older opponents and he wants to challenge some of the best fighters in the world. Starting with the No.1 super-middleweight and top pound-for-pound contender Andre Ward. Dawson has even said that he is willing to move down to 168 to make the fight happen.

No.1 Super-middleweight Andre Ward.

"I can make 168. 175 is where I'm at and I'm on top of the division. I can make 168 so any of the guys down there, any of the big names, I'm ready for it," said the 29-year old.

The 'old' opponents that Dawson is talking about are Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson who were all beaten by 'Bad' Chad. All of these fighters are way past their best so Dawson probably feels that he still hasn't properly proved himself. This is why he is looking to seek out new challenges at super-middlweight. However, he has said that he would stay at light-heavyweight if he gets the opportunity to fight the winner of Tavoris Cloud Vs Jean Pascal.

Pascal is the only person that has beaten Dawson in his 32-fight career. The fight was stopped because of a cut and had to go to the scorecards early. Pascal was the clear winner but 'Bad' Chad did have the Frenchman in trouble towards the end of the fight. The Cloud-Pascal fight takes place on August 11th which is a problem as Dawson has already said that he wants to return to the ring in September, so the fight that we will likely see is Dawson Vs Ward.

Personally, I think a clash with Ward would be a lot better for boxing fans and the two fighters as they will know if either of them can mix it up with the best of a different weight division. Ward will likely have a little too much for Dawson but it has the potential to be a great fight.

Cloud Vs Pascal set for August 11th...

Tavoris Cloud                                              Jean Pascal

IBF light-heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud will defend his title against former world champion Jean Pascal. The fight will take place in Quebec on August 11th.

It will be Pascal's first fight since May 2011, when he was outpointed by veteran Bernard Hopkins. He does have a slight talent advantage over Cloud but the 15 month break is a big worry as Cloud is a strong and aggressive fighter. So if Pascal is rusty there could be real problems for him.

However, Pascal (26-2-1) does have the home field advantage so the way things have been going lately, if the fight is close the decision will go to Pascal. This is why I can see Cloud (24-0) going all out in this fight which could make for a very exciting bout between these two.

Cloud won the IBF title back in 2009 and since then he has made four defences against the likes of Glen Johnson and Gabriel Campillo.

The month of August is usually a bit dead for boxing but this year there have been two great fights made for that month already. Cloud Vs Pascal and if we're lucky Golden Boy may be giving us Devon Alexander Vs Paulie Malignaggi.