Chad Dawson Calls Out Bernard Hopkins

Outside of the ropes, it takes a lot to get Chad Dawson riled up.

"Chad Dawson is one of the best fighters in the world, and he shows it every time that he goes into the ring," said Dawson's promoter, Gary Shaw. "It's just not Chad's style to talk smack or to call people out."

But that changed on Wednesday morning, after Dawson discovered that Roy Jones was stopped in the first round, likely scuttling a proposed, megabout with Bernard Hopkins -- a man Dawson has long targeted as an opponent.

When Dawson heard the news, the 27-year-old fighter known as "Bad" Chad, directed a ballistic, verbal assault at Hopkins.

"You weighed 175 pounds for tonight's fight. Roy Jones was knocked out in a minute and 22 seconds today. And HBO has a March date available," said Dawson, a southpaw who is 29-0 with 17 knockouts.

"No more excuses. Get onboard with HBO's original plan for us to fight each other," said Dawson. "Or, as you told ESPN.com this morning, go run 'a marathon to super-greatness' away from me."

The 40-year-old Jones (54-6, 40 KOs) suffered a first-round knockout against 36-year-old Austrailian Danny Green (28-3, 25 KOs) in Sydney, Austrailia, which casts a doubt on an already-agreed-upon megabout with the 44-year-old Hopkins (49-5, 32 KOs).

Hopkins is scheduled to meet 29-year-old Enrique Ornelas (29-5, 19 KOs) in Wednesday night's 12-round, 175-pound, non-title bout at Temple University's Liacouras Center.

But Dawson thinks Hopkins is avoiding him.

"Hopkins is on the run like the one-armed man in 'The Fugitive.' Eventually the law catches up with him," said Dawson, who is coming off of last month's lopsided, HBO-televised, 12-round unanimous decision over 40-year-old Glen Johnson. "Well I'm the sheriff of the light heavyweight division, and I'm putting a stop to Hopkins' con."

In defeating Johnson, Dawson defended his IBO crown and earned the WBC's interim light heavyweight title. FanHouse scored Dawson-Johnson, 120-108, for Dawson, meaning he pitched a shutout.

The win not only erased all doubt as to who won their first meeting in April 2008 -- which Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KOs) insisted that he won -- but it also established Dawson as the premiere 175-pounder in the world.

"First, Hopkins said he'd fight the winner of my fight with Glen Johnson. I won and Hopkins hid. Second, he said he'd fight the winner of my rematch with Johnson," said Dawson, who is 29-0 with 17 knockouts. "I won and this time, Hopkins chose to fight some guy named Enrique Ornelas who has lost to almost every decent middleweight he's ever fought."

Hopkins-Ornelas will be televised on the VERSUS channel starting at 8 p.m. Hopkins scheduled Ornelas essentially to keep pace with Jones, who already had been slated to face Green.

Green's victory over Jones, who defeated Hopkins by unanimous decision in May of 1993, will be shown on VERSUS on a tape-delayed basis as part of the Hopkins-Ornelas broadcast.

"Hopkins knows that if he fights me, he's looking at a loss of Calzaghe proportions," said Dawson, referring to the fact that both Hopkins and Jones had their last defeats against the now retired Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) of Wales.

"The fight [Hopkins-Ornelas] isn't worthy of being broadcast on HBO, Showtime or even ESPN 2," said Dawson. "Desperate people do desperate things."

Dawson has a likely pick of the winner between Canada's 27-year-old WBC titlist, Jean Pascal (24-1, 16 KOs), and Adrian Diaconu (26-1, 15 KOs), who will meet in a Dec. 11 rematch of Pascal's unanimous decision victory that was accomplished in June.

But after vanquishing Johnson, Dawson left no doubt whom he would next like to face when he was interviewed in the ring after his victory.

"If I had my wish to fight one fight, it would be Bernard Hopkins. That's the guy," Dawson said of Hopkins. "He's been rated No. 1 for like a year and a half now, and I've been rated No. 2 for like two years. It's time for him to get off."

Dawson owns a February 2007 unanimous decision over Polish-born Tomasz Adamek (39-1, 27 KOs), who has since won eight consecutive fights, six of them by KO.

The 32-year-old Adamek has won the IBF cruiserweight (200 pounds) crown, knocked out former heavyweight title contender Andrew Golota, and is now seeking a potential WBA heavyweight championship bout against England's titlist, David Haye.

Dawson prevented Johnson from becoming the oldest man to earn a version of the light heavyweight championship. Johnson was trying to surpass Bob Fitzimmons as the oldest man to win a light heavyweight crown.

Named the 2004 Fighter Of The Year, Johnson has been stopped just once in his career -- in the 11th round by Hopkins in July 1997.

Now it is Dawson who wants Hopkins, and he wants him bad.

"Bernard, it's time for you to pack it in and get out of my division. If you're not willing to fight the best light heavyweight, move along and quit wasting everyone's time," said Dawson, who also has two victories over Antonio Tarver, whom Hopkins also dominated in June 2006. "Your deep well of excuses -- along with your credibility -- has dried up."