By Ryan Burton
"The Boxing Lab," which is BoxingScene.com's official audio show, recently welcomed the new WBC light heavyweight champion, "Bad" Chad Dawson. The usually laid back Dawson spewed fire as he commented on Bernard Hopkins' actions in their fight from last Saturday night in Los Angeles.
After throwing a punch in the second round, Hopkins leaned his body on a hunched over Dawson, and Dawson responded by using his shoulder to push Hopkins off. As a result, Hopkins fell to the canvas. He grabbed his left shoulder and advised the referee that he suffered an injury and could not continue. Because Hopkins could not continue, and there was no intentional foul, Dawson was awarded a TKO victory.
Count Dawson amongst those who are skeptical of Hopkins' injury.
"He's a scared man. A legend wouldn't go out like that," stated Dawson.
The Connecticut based fighter pointed out that Hopkins fell to the floor in his rematch with Roy Jones in April of last year yet he was able to continue. He feels that Hopkins took time to rest and then continued with that fight because he knew that Jones was past his prime.
"He rolled around on the floor for ten minutes versus Roy and and got his rest and then went back and fought because he knew he wasn't facing the same (prime) Roy and that Roy wasn't going to beat him."
Dawson feels that he caught Hopkins off-guard with the aggressiveness that began with the opening bell and continued until the end of the fight. According to Dawson, he was on his way to showcasing the aggressive performance that fans have been demanding for some time. Dawson went as far as to say that Hopkins realized he wouldn't be able to go twelve rounds and looked for a way out of the fight.
"Everyone wants to see me as the aggressor. They call me cautious and I was the aggressive guy," explained Dawson to The Boxing Lab. "That was a totally different Chad Dawson you saw that night. Hopkins was running. How long were that old man's legs going to hold up? That dude is so little. He is a little baby. He is fragile. He would of got hurt and he knows it. I would of went in and finished. I chased him for three years. He knows he didn't want to fight me. That was a bitch move on his part."
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