Hopkins-Dawson II: Once Is Not Enough?
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time…”
“You always say I’ll quit when I start to slide, and then one morning you wake up and you’ve done slid.”—Sugar Ray Robinson
It’s our job to report the news, whether there’s news to report or not, whether we like the news we’re reporting or not. We take seriously our responsibility to advocate for the sport. That means calling the good, bad and ugly for what they are, and not legitimizing every whiff that passes beneath our nose. It also means trumpeting the truth, or at the very least the truth as we see it, when others fail to treat critically that which deserves nothing less.
The latest news to come down the pike is that Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson, whose first fight was, to put it mildly, the ultimate nonstarter, have agreed to do it again.
Now there are wags out there who must be thinking to themselves, “Do what again?” since Hopkins and Dawson did so little when they first met. But maybe that’s why they’re doing it again. Maybe this time they’re going to give the fans their money’s worth.
Granted, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” quoting P.T. Barnum. Yet “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” according to Abraham Lincoln.
Why anyone would want to see Hopkins perform for the umpteenth time is beyond me. But if there’s money to be made, Hopkins might as well go and make it, because if he doesn’t someone more deserving will.
So on April 28 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, in what we hope isn’t a replay of the Staples Center Stinker, Hopkins-Dawson II will take place.
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, Hopkins’ promoter, Dawson’s promoter Gary Shaw, and HBO have reached an agreement that apparently satisfies all concerned.
Hopkins is pleased that he’s getting another crack at Dawson, and expressed his pleasure as only Hopkins can.
“I have a chance to settle the bullshit from the first fight,” he said, “and straighten that all out. A real athlete don’t want to win something on a disqualification or a no-decision or get something handed to them without doing the work. I’m ready to go.”
Hopkins was more than “ready to go” running to the WBC and the California State Athletic Commission when Pat Russell ruled the fight in Dawson’s favor. Is that what a “real athlete” does?
There’s no need to dredge up what went down in the first Hopkins-Dawson, especially since there are so many contradictory versions of what occurred. That HBO, the former paradigm turned bellwether, is foisting Hopkins-Dawson II on a disgusted and shrinking fan base is nothing less than another potential fiasco disguised as a miscalculation.
“It’s time to correct the first fight and let people get what they paid for, this time not on pay-per-view,” said Hopkins to the relief of some. “They paid for a fight. They didn’t come to see a round-and-a-half and then have that ending. It happened. You move on and you go ahead and give the people what they want, and I’m pretty sure Dawson thinks the same thing and that he will be overconfident and think I will be easy to beat.”
Hopkins can talk until he’s blue in the face, but not everyone is buying what he’s selling. This fight isn’t about boxing. That’s a subtext. It’s about Hopkins being Hopkins, and what that has meant in the past, means in the present, and has ceased to mean as the years have progressed.
Hopkins’ accomplishments are many and nothing to sneeze at. But boxing needs this fight like it needs a hole in the head. Win, lose, or draw, no decision or disqualification, it will be a less than satisfying night.
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