Bernard Hopkins Loses Controversial Title Bout After Being Dumped on Canvas by Dawson
Bernard Hopkins lost his title and chance at becoming the oldest boxer in history to defend his world title, when the referee ended the bout against Chad “Bad” Dawson at the end of the second round.
A 46-year-old Hopkins tied Dawson up in a clinch, leaning on the back of the 29-year-old Southpaw in the process. The younger fighter reacted by shoving his way out of Hopkins’ hold with a shoulder, lifting him off of the floor in the process and then dumping him onto his back on the floor.
Hopkins landed on his shoulder and referee Pat Russell decided to rule the move a technical knockout after a lengthy deliberation. However Hopkins felt his opponent had cheated, and that the move should have been ruled a foul.
"They set me up. It should have been a no-contest," Hopkins said after the fight. "The ref asked me if I could go on and I said, 'Yes, with one arm.' And then he called the fight. You gotta just watch the fight. He picked me up, my two legs off the ground, and he threw me down on my shoulder.
Although Russell declared that the fight was over since Hopkins could not continue, the former lightweight champion said he was willing to go on with the fight.
"I have a knot. But I said I would continue with one arm,” Hopkins said, according to ESPN. “I was ready. [Russell] didn't say he was stopping the fight. He just walked away. He never told me if I didn't keep fighting I would be [knocked out]. He just walked away."
Dawson said he believed his actions were warranted, and that Hopkins resorted to certain tactics to avoid continuing with the fight.
“He jumped on me and was pulling me down, so I pushed him off with the shoulder,” Dawson said. “B-Hop disappointed a lot of fans. I was looking forward to a good fight. I trained eight weeks for this. ... Yes, he was faking. This is a fight I wanted for three years, and Bernard obviously didn’t want the fight.”
However the 46-year-old defeated fighter proved to be hurt after an examination at a Los Angeles hospital confirmed that he separated his acromioclavicular (A-C) joint, which connects the collar bone and shoulder blade, according to fightnews.com. Dawson, who has a record of 31-1 with 18 KOs, refused to grant a rematch to Hopkins, who now has a 52-6-2, 32 KOs record.
It is the first time in his career Hopkins has been stopped inside the distance and ends his reign as boxing's oldest world champion.
