PHILADELPHIA -- Chad Dawson, the young light heavyweight star, has been calling out Bernard Hopkins for ages, but Hopkins didn't have a lot of interest in fighting him. And who could blame him, with a potential big-money rematch against Roy Jones Jr. on the table for early 2010?
However, that was until Jones got knocked out by Danny Green in the first round Wednesday in Australia, hopefully bringing Jones' great career to a close once and for all.
Hopkins will attend to his business Wednesday night against Enrique Ornelas, but there won't be a fight with Jones now.
So, assuming Hopkins defeats the rugged journeyman, who then shall he fight? He'd like to fight heavyweight titlist David Haye eventually, but that bout is a long way off, if not merely a pipe dream. Haye is saddled with a mandatory defense against John Ruiz in the spring and then probably a rematch with Nikolai Valuev. A fight with Hopkins is probably not feasible until at least late 2010.
So if Hopkins wants to fight on, and not sit and wait -- and he turns 45 in January, so time is running out -- maybe he'll fight Dawson, who is the opponent HBO would like to match him with. Maybe Hopkins will renew talks to fight cruiserweight champ Tomasz Adamek, who is now dabbling at heavyweight and expected to face former U.S. Olympian Jason Estrada on Feb. 6.
Kathy Duva of Main Events, Adamek's promoter, reminded me Wednesday that for a fight with Hopkins, Adamek would certainly fight at cruiserweight and defend his championship.
If you ask Dawson (29-0, 17 KOs) and his promoter, Gary Shaw, they don't believe Hopkins will face Dawson.
"He's on the run, like the one-armed man in 'The Fugitive.' Eventually the law catches up with him," Dawson said. "Well, I'm the sheriff of the light heavyweight division and I'm putting a stop to Hopkins' con. First he said he'd fight the winner of my [2008] fight with Glen Johnson. I won and Hopkins hid. Second, he said he'd fight the winner of my [Nov. 7] rematch with Johnson. I won and this time Hopkins chose to fight some guy named Enrique Ornelas, who has lost to almost every decent middleweight he's ever fought. And on top of that, the fight isn't worthy of being broadcast on HBO, Showtime or even ESPN2. Desperate people do desperate things. Hopkins knows that if he fights me, he's looking at a loss.
"Bernard, it's time for you to pack it in and get out of my division. If you're not willing to fight the best light heavyweight, move along and quit wasting everyone's time. Your deep well of excuses, along with your credibility, has dried up. You weighed 175 pounds for [Wednesday's] fight, Roy Jones was knocked out in 122 seconds today and HBO has a March date available. No more excuses. Get onboard with HBO's original plan for us to fight each other, or as you told ESPN.com, go run 'a marathon to super-greatness' away from me."
Shaw told me that HBO is holding an April date for Dawson's next fight, but, like his fighter, he doubts Hopkins will fight him.
"I don't think Hopkins will ever fight Chad," he said. "I don't think he has any intention. I don't believe he wants to fight him. I think he realizes how big and how fast Chad is and [that] a safer fight is Adamek, who is much slower."
Dawson, by the way, handed Adamek his only loss in a light heavyweight title bout in 2007, and it wasn't even very competitive.
So what then for Dawson?
Shaw said one possibility is the winner of the light heavyweight title rematch between Canadians Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu, who meet Dec. 11. (Shameless plug: It's available live on ESPN360.com.)
"What about Green? He weighed 179 and starched Roy Jones," Shaw said. "He might come down to 175 or Chad goes up to 179, and we could go down under and it would be a huge fight."
Source: sports.espn.go.com
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