By Freddy Fresco
I wasn’t really much of a Bernard Hopkins fan because I still remember him slamming the Puerto Rican flag down on the ground in Puerto Rico during a press event for the Tito Trinidad fight but I gave him his props for defeating my favorite fighter Tito Trinidad.
I personally don’t think Bernard Hopkins is a throwback fighter like he always claims to be. Most of his fights were hand picked at the right time. He fought blown up welters and fought junior middleweight Winky Wright at a catchweight of 170, Kelly Pavlik is one dimensional, Jean Pascal has no boxing skill at all he just throws flurries from time to time, Roy Jones Jr. was knocked out multiple times before he fought him in a rematch and he couldn’t put him away, and he chose Chad Dawson because he thought Chad was mentally weaker and it was the right time to take advantage of that weakness and fight him. Bernard Hopkins didn’t expect to see the Dawson he saw on Saturday night. Chad Dawson was a man possessed and he was bigger, stronger, faster and most of all mentally prepared for Hopkins. Bernard was wasting energy clumsily running around all over the place, trying his dirty tactics early by bowing his head and running forward flailing away, but they didn’t work on Dawson and Bernard realized it and took the easy way out.
It was clear as day that Bernard knew he wasn’t going to be able to intimidate Dawson or overpower him like he did against the shorter more flawed Jean Pascal. When Hopkins fell on the canvas from a shoulder shove, I knew he wasn’t going to get up, he didn’t want to continue against Chad Dawson. I’ve seen it many times before with Bernard, he doesn’t win fights on boxing skill but by bending the rules and doing everything cheap to win a fight or to catch a break. When he fought Joe Calzaghe he said he would never lose to a white boy, but that white guy put a beating on him with angles and flurries. Bernard Hopkins was holding Calzaghe every chance he got and looking for a way out like trying to get points deducted from Joe Calzaghe or get a disqualification victory, he did the same thing against Roy Jones Jr. in their rematch, if this man was a true warrior or throwback fighter why was he so scared to engage with someone who is a shell of his former self and just got knocked out by Danny Green? If you are a throwback fighter you would do what any throwback fighter would do to a shot fighter, destroy them and dominate them with ease not complain about fouls and over acting to get points deducted.
Watch the video posted below to see how a man with a badly dislocated shoulder fights like a true throwback tough guy. Bernard Hopkins has never fought through such adversity, anytime he goes through some type of adversity he starts looking for a cheap way to win and flopping exaggerating the injury or low blow. A true throwback would have shook that off, got back up, and continued to fight on heart and willpower alone.
In this video heavyweight Danny Williams overcomes having his shoulder dislocated twice in a fight and with pure heart and the fighting spirit of a throwback old school fighter knocks out his opponent with one good arm, there was no quit in him or cry baby tactics, just pure grit.
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