- Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson
-
Believe It Or Not! 
Date 15 October 2011 Location 
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, United StatesTitle(s) on the line WBC/The Ring Light Heavyweight Championship Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad DawsonThe Executioner Bad Tale of the tape Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States From New Haven, Connecticut, United States 52–5-2-1 (32 KO) Pre-fight record 30–1-0-1 (17 KO) 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 173½ Weight 174¼ orthodox Style southpaw WBC/The Ring's Light Heavyweight Champion. Recognition Former WBC/IBF Light Heavyweight Champion. Result Tech. Draw 2 (WBC decision); Dawson TKO 2 (official result by California Athletic Commission pending review) Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson was a boxing match contested for both the WBC and The Ring light heavyweight championships. The fight took place at Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, United States on 15 October 2011.[1][2] Hopkins was making the first defense of the titles he won from Jean Pascal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada earlier in 2011 while Dawson was looking to win the WBC title for a second time and the Ring title for the first time. The fight was the main event of an HBO pay-per-view presentation.
The fight's result has been contested. The California Boxing Commission, whose results are official and binding, retains referee Pat Russell's original technical knockout decision and has Dawson as the winner whereas the WBC has declared it a technical draw and has Hopkins as its champion. The Commisson will review the decision at its regular meeting on December 13.[3]
Contents
Background
Bernard Hopkins
Hopkins fought Pascal in a rematch of a fight that had ended in controversy on 18 December 2010 in Quebec City, Quebec.[4] In that fight, Pascal was making the first defense of the Ring light heavyweight championship he won from Dawson in his last fight and the fourth defense of the WBC title he took from Adrian Diaconu on 19 June 2009. The fight ended in a majority draw, with two of the three judges voting the fight even while the third gave Hopkins the victory.[5]
During the course of the fight Hopkins landed many more punches than the champion (131 to 70 total)[6] and won a unanimous decision despite the referee not counting two potential knockdowns when Pascal's glove touched the canvas. Hopkins won a closer decision due to those calls, but with his victory he broke the record held by George Foreman as the oldest professional boxing champion ever. Hopkins was 46 when he won the fight, beating the old record Foreman set at 45 when he won his second heavyweight championship.[7]
Chad Dawson
Dawson also fought on the card for the second contest, which was his first fight since losing a unanimous technical decision to Pascal after the fight was stopped due to Dawson being cut from an accidental clash of heads.[8] Although Dawson had a rematch clause in his contract, he chose not to exercise it[9] and then signed to fight former champion Diaconu with the winner getting the first shot at the winner of Pascal-Hopkins II.[10] Dawson won by unanimous decision over Diaconu to set up the match with Hopkins.
Undercard
- Dawson defeated Hopkins via Technical Knockout at 2:48 of the second round.
- Lightweight Championship bout:
Jorge Linares vs. 
Antonio DeMarco
- DeMarco defeated Linares via Technical Knockout at 2:32 of the eleventh round.
- Light Welterweight bout: Danny Garcia vs. Kendall Holt
- Garcia defeated Holt via Split Decision. (117-111, 115-113, 117-111)
- Welterweight bout: Paulie Malignaggi vs. Orlando Lora
- Malignaggi defeated Lora via Unanimous Decision. (100-90, 98-92, 99-91)
Preliminary card
- Light Middleweight bout: Luis Collazo vs. Freddy Hernandez
- Hernandez defeated Collazo via Unanimous Decision. (93-96, 93-96, 93-96)
- Welterweight bout: Nick Casal vs. Michael Anderson
- Casal defeated Anderson via Technical Knockout at 2:51 of the third round.
- Middleweight bout: Donyil Livingston vs. Kurtiss Colvin
- Livingston defeated Colvin via Unanimous Decision. (59-55, 58-56, 58-56)
- Cruiserweight bout: Dewey Bozella vs. Larry Hopkins
- Bozella defeated Hopkins via Unanimous Decision. (38-37, 39-36, 39-36)
- Super Bantamweight bout: Manuel Avila vs. David Reyes
- Avila defeated Reyes via Split Decision. (38-37, 39-36, 38-37)
Summary
The non-televised portion of the undercard was noted for featuring Dewey Bozella, who was fighting his first bout at the age of 52 after being incarcerated for a crime he did not commit for twenty-six years. Bozella, fighting at cruiserweight, defeated his opponent Larry Hopkins by unanimous decision in a four-round bout. Bozella will not fight again.[11]
Former welterweight champion Luis Collazo also fought on the non-televised undercard against junior middleweight contender Freddy Hernandez, who defeated him by unanimous decision.
The three televised undercard bouts featured two former junior welterweight champions and a lightweight championship fight. In the first bout, fought at welterweight, Paulie Malignaggi defeated Orlando Lora in a lopsided ten round decision. In the second fight, a twelve-rounder for the NABO junior welterweight championship and an elimination bout for the IBF title, undefeated Danny Garcia handed former WBO champion Kendall Holt his third loss in five fights by defeating him via split decision. In the second-to-last match of the evening, Antonio DeMarco defeated Jorge Linares to take his WBC lightweight championship.
Result
After an uneventful first round, controversy marred the second round and the fight itself. While in a clinch, Dawson pushed his shoulder into Hopkins to break it. Hopkins was lifted off the ground, stumbled back and fell through the ropes, landing awkwardly on his shoulder. Referee Pat Russell checked on Hopkins, who said he could continue "with one arm". Russell elected not to let Hopkins continue and stopped the fight, awarding Dawson a technical knockout. This was the first time Hopkins had been knocked out in his career. Hopkins and his promoter Richard Schaefer both said they would protest the result; Hopkins said a foul should have been called on Dawson and the result should have been a no contest. Dawson and his promoter Gary Shaw claimed that no matter what happens, he will not fight Hopkins again. Shaw said that the former champion "didn't want to fight." Hopkins later decided to seek a change from a no-contest to a disqualification of Dawson, which would have given him the victory.
Aftermath
On October 20, the WBC announced that it agreed that Dawson had thrown and pushed Hopkins with intent to injure him, and its new decision is a technical draw.[12] The WBC has reinstated Hopkins as its light heavyweight champion. The WBC's move was mostly symbolic and Dawson is still the official winner by technical knockout; the California Boxing Commisson can officially vacate the decision when it reviews it at its next regularly scheduled meeting on December 13.[13][3]
Reported fight earnings
- Bernard Hopkins $1,000,000 vs. Chad Dawson $800,000
- Jorge Linares $100,000 vs. Antonio DeMarco $50,000
- Danny Garcia $75,000 vs. Kendall Holt $31,000
- Paul Malignaggi $75,000 vs. Orlando Lora $7,500
- Dewey Bozella $1,250 vs. Larry Hopkins $2,500
International broadcasting
Country / Region Broadcaster 
AlbaniaSuperSport Albania 
ArgentinaTyC Sports 
AustraliaMain Event 
BelgiumBe Sport 1 
Czech RepublicSport 1 
DenmarkTV 2 Sport 
FranceCanal+ Sport 
HungarySport 1 
GermanyEurosport 
IcelandStöð 2 Sport 
ItalySportitalia 
JapanWOWOW 
MalaysiaAstro SuperSport MexicoTelevisa 
New ZealandSky 
NorwayViasat Sport 
PhilippinesSolar Sports/TV5/IBC-13[14] 
PolandPolsat Sport 
PortugalSport TV 
QatarAl Jazeera Sports 
RomaniaSport.ro 
RussiaNTV Plus 
SlovakiaSport 1 
SpainDigital+ 
SwedenTV10 
South AfricaSuperSport 
United KingdomPrimetime / BoxNation United StatesHBO PPV VenezuelaMeridiano Notes
- ^ BoxRec Boxing Records. Boxrec.com. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ Farmer, Douglas. (2011-08-02) Bernard Hopkins to risk WBC belt against Chad Dawson. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ a b Philadelphia Daily News. "[1]", October 20, 2011. Accessed October 21, 2011
- ^ LaBate, Chris. (2011-05-22) Bernard Hopkins beats Jean Pascal To Make History. Boxing Scene. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=290691&cat=boxer
- ^ Robinson, Loren. (2011-06-08) Bernard Hopkins' top five fights after 40. Yahoo Sports. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ Graham, Bryan. (2011-05-22) Hopkins makes history yet again with latest age-defying victory. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ Rafael, Dan. (2010-08-15) Jean Pascal beats Chad Dawson to keep WBC title. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ Rafael, Dan. (2011-01-07) Bernard Hopkins may get rematch. ESPN. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ (2011-05-26) Bernard Hopkins says: Its me and Chad Dawson Next. Boxing Scene. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
- ^ http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7108340/exonerated-ex-con-dewey-bozella-wins-pro-boxing-debut-52
- ^ World Boxing Council. "WBC Declares a Technical Draw in Fight Hopkins- Dawson." October 20, 2011. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ Rafael, Dan. "Bernard Hopkins gets title back", October 21, 2011. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "AKTV on IBC September Schedule". TV5. 19 September 2011. http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/assets/homepage/AKTV-September.pdf. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
Preceded by
vs. Jean PascalBernard Hopkins's bouts
October 15, 2011Succeeded by
[To be determined]Preceded by
vs. Adrian DiaconuChad Dawson's bouts
October 15, 2011Succeeded by
[To be determined]Categories:- Boxing fights
- 2011 in boxing
- History of boxing
- HBO Sports
- Sports in California
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