Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson II took place on April 28, 2012. The match was a rematch of their first controversial fight from a year earlier in

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, which ended when Hopkins was unable to continue due to a dislocated shoulder suffered when Dawson lifted Hopkins off the ground with his own shoulder, causing Hopkins to fall to the canvas after a clinch. The fight was originally ruled as a

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

victory for Dawson in the second round, but was later changed to a no contest by the California State Athletic Commission and a

technical draw A technical draw is a term used in boxing when a fight has to be stopped because a fighter is unable to continue from an accidental injury (usually cuts) or foul. Draws occur when the bout goes to the scorecards, and the officials cannot determin ...

by the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

. The rematch took place at

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in Atlantic City,

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, USA, and was televised on HBO as part of its '' World Championship Boxing'' series. The rematch was contested for Hopkins' WBC and ''The Ring'' light heavyweight championships, both of which were returned to him after the reversed decision.

Undercard

The co-featured contest on the HBO card featured a heavyweight bout between Seth Mitchell and Chazz Witherspoon for the vacant NABO heavyweight championship, which was won by Mitchell via a third round technical knockout.

Fight information

Since neither fighter was able to garner a decision in the previous fight, they entered the contest with the same records they had when they fought the first time. Hopkins' record stood at 52-5-2-1, and counting the first fight he had not lost in his last six fights dating back to his 2008 defeat at the hands of

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, which cost him ''The Ring'' light heavyweight championship he had won from

Antonio Tarver Antonio Deon Tarver (born November 21, 1968) is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, IB ...

. Dawson entered the fight having only been defeated one time, when

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beat him for his WBC and International Boxing Organization titles in

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in 2010.

Eddie Cotton Eddie Cotton, Jr. (June 15, 1926 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States — April 17, 2020 in Seattle) was a former boxer. Cotton was a resident of Seattle, Washington until his death on following a second liver transplant. Career Eddie Cotton w ...

was the referee for the fight, with Dick Flaherty, Luis Rivera, and Steve Weisfeld as judges.

The bout

In the fourth round of the fight, Hopkins hit the challenger with an accidental headbutt which caused Dawson to begin to bleed from his eye. Later on in that round Dawson again tried to lift Hopkins off the canvas as he had in the previous fight but was unsuccessful. Although Hopkins continued to inflict damage to Dawson's face, Dawson kept hitting Hopkins and won a majority of the rounds. Hopkins went for a knockout victory which he needed later in the fight, but Dawson held him off and lasted the full twelve rounds.

Result

Dawson won a

majority decision A majority decision (MD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. In a majority decision, two of the three judges agree on whi ...

victory. Flaherty and Weisfeld both saw him as a 117-111 winner while Rivera scored the fight even at 114-114. Hopkins was not pleased with the loss and stormed out of the ring afterward, saying "let the public judge for themselves" if he won. Dawson called Hopkins a dirty fighter and said that if you could go twelve rounds with him you could go twelve rounds with anyone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Dawson II 2012 in boxing 2012 in sports in New Jersey April 2012 sports events in the United States Boxing matches at Boardwalk Hall Dawson II Light heavyweight championship matches