The WBC (World Boxing Council) has decided that Chad Dawson’s controversial second-round TKO win over Light Heavyweight Champion Bernard Hopkins on Oct. 15 will be ruled a technical draw. Dawson lifted Hopkins off of him during the bout and sent the champion crashing to the canvas where he suffered a separated shoulder. Hopkins didn’t want to continue and referee Pat Russell called it a TKO since he didn’t rule Dawson’s maneuver to be a foul.

Most fans figured the WBC would eventually rule a no contest or something similar and it didn’t take them long to do so. Therefore, Hopkins is still the WBC champion. However, the WBC doesn’t have the power to overrule the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) and they may not decide to change the outcome of the match. If they don’t then the result will officially be ruled a second-round TKO for Dawson. The commission probably won’t make a ruling until December though.

This may seem a little strange, but the WBC doesn’t have the power to overrule the commission. They can only rule within their own organization and who holds the belt. If the 29-year-old Dawson is interested in becoming the WBC titleholder he’s going to have to face the 46-year-old Hopkins again. It’s assumed that the WBC will give him this opportunity once Hopkins shoulder has healed.

Hopkins was happy with the decision of course and said justice was done by the WBC. But Gary Shaw, whom promotes Dawson, said he’s pretty disappointed in the move, but is confident that the boxing organization will place Dawson back in his number one ranking, meaning Hopkins will have to fight him since he’s the mandatory challenger.

Shaw said Hopkins fouled Dawson first by draping himself over his boxer’s back and Dawson simply tried to get his opponent off of him. He said he accepts the ruling, but still doesn’t agree with it. Hopkins has filed a protest with the CSAC and wants it to change the result to a disqualification win for himself. However, if the commission does change the official result it’s more likely they’ll rule it a no decision or a technical draw.

WBC boss Jose Sulaiman came to his decision after watching a videotape of the bout and felt that Dawson intentionally lifted Hopkins off of him, but didn’t meant to cause any damage. He also took into consideration the medical report on Hopkins to make sure he wasn’t faking an injury. In addition, when other unintentional fouls are committed, such as head butts, the fight is ruled a technical draw if it has to be stopped in the first four rounds. If the fight enters the fifth round and is stopped due to injuries sustained by accidental fouls then it goes to the scorecards.

While many fans feel Hopkins got what he deserved because they perceive him as a dirty fighter, the WBC ruling was still the right one to make. Dawson will now have the opportunity to prove he can beat him with boxing skills alone the next time they meet.

Seeing Bernard Hopkins lose his WBC Light Heavyweight Title to Chad Dawson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Oct. 15 wasn’t really a surprise at all. A controversial fight wasn’t really too hard to predict. But the fact it was all over before the second round had finished was a bit of a shock.

Controversy and boxing go hand in hand and have done so for decades now. It seems every time there’s a pay-per-view broadcast that something new and different seems to happen that gives the sport a bad name. And as usual, those who shelled out their hard-earned cash for the fights feel ripped off.

Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) was attempting to defend his title at the ripe old age of 46 against 29-year old Dawson (31-1, 18 KOs). Most experts figured it might be a decent fight, but wasn’t worth pay-per-view status. The first round was pretty uneventful and the second was too until the final minute was winding down.

Hopkins moved in and seemed to lean on the back of Dawson who reacted by lifting up his body and throwing Hopkins off of him. It wasn’t an overly aggressive move and it’s something that’s been seen many times before in a boxing ring.

However, instead of getting up to continue Hopkins writhed on the ring in apparent pain at the ropes. He was pointing to his shoulder and assumed he had separated it. The referee eventually called the fight a TKO win for Dawson since he didn’t call his tackle a foul.

While it may have not been an illegal or dirty move, most fans thought the fight would have been called a no-contest since Hopkins wasn’t sent to the canvas by a punch. But that wasn’t the case. Dawson was awarded the championship belt via a second-round TKO.

After the fight, Hopkins said he told referee Pat Russell he would continue, but Russell didn’t see it that way. Henderson said Hopkins didn’t get up from the deck and said he couldn’t continue. Dawson said Hopkins was faking the injury and didn’t want to fight. He can’t be blamed for feeling that way since Hopkins has been known to embellish incidents in the past.

But doctors later revealed that Hopkins had suffered a significant injury. Dawson said he has no interest in giving Hopkins a rematch h and wants to meet Jean Pascal next. Pascal stopped Dawson in 2010 after Dawson suffered a cut from an clash of heads and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards with Pascal winning a unanimous decision.

It’s hard to believe in this day and age though that Hopkins, being the champion, wouldn’t have included a rematch clause in the contract with Dawson. Pascal said he’ll fight Dawson as soon as possible, but with all of the controversy surrounding the Hopkins-Dawson fight it’s possible that the referee will be overruled and a rematch could be on the books in the near future.

Hopkins should have been given the option of continuing the fight if he wanted, even though he would have basically been a one-armed fighter, but that’s his choice. If it turns out he wasn’t asked if he wanted to continue, we might see a rematch ordered. Until then, it’s just another controversy boxing can do without.

The WBC Light Heavyweight Championship showdown between holder Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson on Oct. 15 is being billed as “Believe It or Not.” It’s not as catchy as the Thrilla in Manila, but it’ll do I suppose. On second thought, it’s an ideal name for the event because believe it or not you have to shell out about $55 to watch it on HBO Pay-Per View.

Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) has never been a pay-per-view fighter in his career, so why fans have to pay to watch him put them to sleep at the age of 46 is a mystery. Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) isn’t a pay-per-view star either and when you match the two of them up, it’s a bit of an insult to the fans. In fact, with the cheapest ticket for the card being $25, fans might as well go down to the Staples Center in LA and buy a ticket, leaving enough left over for a couple of drinks and a hot dog.

There’s no doubt that Hopkins has had a fine career and winning a title at the age of 46 may be a record that’s never broken. But it’s also a fact that he’s one of the most boring fighters on the planet. Dawson is a bit more exciting, but he’s no Muhammad Ali either.

Hopkins struggled with an overrated Jean Pascal in his last two controversial fights and eked out a close unanimous decision win and a draw. Dawson also struggled with Pascal when they met in august of 2010 and the fight was stopped in the 11^th round due to an accidental head butt. Dawson wasn’t happy with the technical decision since he was starting to get to Pascal at the time.

Dawson started slowly in that fight and it cost him in the end when the scorecards were read. The lesson to be learned from that fight is that he can’t sit back and take it easy against Hopkins. When Hopkins fights, he rarely throws punches unless he has to keep his opponent off of him. This is why Dawson needs to press the action as stay as active as possible.

Hopkins isn’t used to having to fight to earn his decisions as he prefers to lull his opponents to sleep as well as the fans. The 29-year-old Dawson’s southpaw style could give Hopkins problems and he has the age, size, and height advantages. He’s got excellent speed, but lacks one-punch KO power. But so does Pascal and he dropped Hopkins a few times.

Dawson has all of the tools to be an excellent boxer, but he doesn’t seem to have the killer instinct. He recently dropped Emanuel Steward as his trainer and replaced him with former trainer John Scully. Dawson is a fine boxer/puncher while Hopkins fights like he just wants to survive so he can line up another payday.

Granted, Hopkins has thrown more punches in has past few fights, but after decision losses to Jermain Taylor (twice) and Joe Calzaghe, he had no choice. Hopkins assumes close decisions should go his way because of his age and record, but he quickly found out he’s not going to win anything without letting his hands go.

If both boxers come to throw punches, Dawson shouldn’t have a problem winning the fight. If he allows Hopkins to get away with just throwing a dozen a round then it’s going to be another boring and controversial fight, which is typical of a Hopkins bout.

A boxer doesn’t necessarily lose his skills with age. Some of them lose it long before that and realize it’s time to get out of the sport. There are the odd few that can continue fighting at an elite level well into their 40s. In this era, the top two that come to mind are George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins, both who won world titles in their mid-40s.

Others have tried to emulate the success of these two, such as Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones Jr. and have met with varying degrees of success.  Ironically, when 46-year-old Hopkins became the oldest boxer in history to win a world title on May 21^st by beating Jean Pascal, 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. was getting knocked out half way across the world in Moscow.

While Jones used to be one of the world’s best boxers, he just doesn’t seem to have it anymore. Whereas Hopkins was never spectacular in the first pace, but just keeps on going and going. But Jones didn’t lose it overnight when he got knocked out with a few seconds to go in his fight with Dennis Lebedev of Russia .

Jones’ (54-8,  40 Kos) downfall can be traced all the way back to 2004 when Antonio Tarver knocked him out in the second round. He was brutally knocked out again just four months later by Glen Johnson and then waited a year before fighting again, losing a unanimous decision to Tarver. This was probably the most telling sign he should retire as Jones, a superior boxer, seemed to be gun shy and was outboxed by an opponent he would have easily beaten in his prime.

Jones then reeled off three straight decision victories decent opponents before losing on points to awkward Joe Calzaghe. But he was knocked out in just 122 seconds when he travelled to Australia to take on Danny Green in 2009. In fact, Jones has been knocked out in four of his eight losses and has lost three fights in a row twice. On top of that, he’s lost seven of his last 12 fights.

Things would be different if he was losing fights by close decisions, but he’s been getting knocked out at an alarming rate. He can’t be fighting for the love of the sport anymore because getting knocked unconscious can’t be any fun, no matter how sadistic you may be.

It’s believed Jones went all the way to Russia to fight Lebedev for $500,000, which is money he desperately needs to pay the American tax man. If this is so, it shows how important financial advisers  are to athletes, especially boxers. Jones has made well over $100 million during his career, but is now putting his life on the line to settle issues with the IRS.

Only Jones knows what happened to all of his money, but it’s known that he has financially helped out his friend Gerald McClellan, who suffered permanent brain damage in a fight back in 1995. Being around McClellan, Jones knows all too well what can happen to a fighter who suffers a permanent injury. But after he came to from the Lebedev beating he said he still might carry on boxing.

Jones is caught between a rock and a hard place. He has other interests, such as music and basketball, but realistically he knows it’s a good bet that he can earn big paydays by stepping into the ring. As long as fighters like Jones, who are just shells of their former selves, keep on fighting, there’s a good chance retirement will no longer be an option to them unfortunately.

After years of whining and moaning following his losses, it was finally refreshing to watch Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32Kos) fight without having to listen to the usual drivel afterwards. The reason for this of course is because he finally won a fight that he deserved to on May 21st.

The 46-year-old Hopkins earned the right to be called the WBC Light Heavyweight Champion after beating 28-year-old Jean Pascal (26-2-1, 16Kos) in his adopted home town of Montreal, Canada. Along with the belt, Hopkins also became the oldest world champion in boxing history, eclipsing the former record set by George Foreman.

This was a rematch of last December’s affair in Quebec City, in which Hopkins and Pascal fought to a 12-round majority draw. As usual, Hopkins wasn’t happy with any decision that went against him and let everybody know about it with his constant bitching, even though it was the right decision.

Hopkins was decked a couple of times early in that fight and had a huge hole to dig out of. But instead of being proud of the fact that he did dig his way out and fought to a draw, he spewed the usual nonsense about being robbed.

A rematch was inevitable, and curiously, Showtime, who broadcast the first fight, didn’t want any part of the second one and HBO picked it up. Hopkins was confident he could beat Pascal after their first meeting and to his credit, he did just that. He never really hurt the younger fighter and actually got staggered himself a couple of times, but there couldn’t be any arguing over the scores of 116-112, 115-114, and 115-113.

It was a fine display of boxing and Hopkins has finally realized he needs to throw punches if he wants to win decisions these days, because it’s highly unlikely he’s going to be knocking anybody out. Beating a world champion 18 years his junior is nothing to sneeze at and Hopkins deserves all the credit in the world for his win. Pascal isn’t the toughest guy out there, despite his record, and Hopkins used the right game plan to beat him.

Pascal’s not a hard puncher though and he’s too wild with his shots, but he still rocked Hopkins a couple of times and dropped him in the first fight. This is something the new champion should take into consideration when choosing his next opponent. He needs to stay away from hard-hitting boxers who keep the pressure up for the entire three minutes of a round. He said he wants Lucian Bute or Chad Dawson, with Bute being the safer bet.

After watching Hopkins fight for the last 20 years or so, he seems to be an okay guy, but his crying routine after losses was getting on a lot of people’s nerves. He said he’s going to change his style to a more entertaining one and he should win back some of his former fans if he does. Nobody begrudges a guy who puts in an honest effort and that’s what Hopkins has been lacking in recent years, especially in his losses to Jermain Taylor, where he threw just a handful of punches each round.

Hopkins showed the world what can be achieved if you take care of yourself and possess the right combination of skill and experience, no matter how old you are. He’s still in great shape and could possibly fight for a few more years. But we won’t know if he’s really grown up until the next time he loses.