by Bob Canobbio

47-year old Bernard Hopkins got what he wanted defensively against Chad Dawson in their rematch, it was lack of offensive Execution that failed him Saturday night.

Hopkins, the master at blunting his opponents offense, limited Dawson to an average of 13 punches landed per round/36 thrown per round.  Dawson had averaged 17 landed/49 thrown in his previous ten fights at 175 lbs.  That’s a 24% drop off in landed punches and 27% in thrown.

As for Hopkins’ offensive woes.  Was it:  a-father time, b- Dawson’s own lack of aggression, c- the fact that Dawson is a lanky southpaw- a style that is customarily hard to get to, or 4- all of the above?  Whatever it was, the numbers reveal that Hopkins landed an average of just 9 of 33 punches thrown per round.  In his previous 9 fights at 170-plus lbs, Hopkins averaged 13 punches landed/41 thrown.  Punches landed wins fights – and Hopkins had a 31% dropoff from his previous nine fights.  Hopkins actually threw more punches than Dawson in three of the last four rounds- but was outlanded in three of those four rounds, with one round even in connects.

The light heavyweight average is 18 landed, 54 thrown, evidence that Dawson didn’t exactly light the CompuBox computer afire.. 

 Why was Hopkins successful in his two fights with  Jean Pascal? Because Pascal averaged just 13 punches landed/40 thrown per round in seven of his fights (including the two Hopkins fights) tracked by CompuBox.

BERNARD HOPKINS

TOTAL PUNCHES LANDED/THROWN PER ROUND

vs. Dawson II          9/33

prev. 9 fights at 170-plus     13/41

light heavy. avg.     18/54