:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/14441493/129329223.0.jpg)
WBC light heavyweight titlist "Bad" Chad Dawson may not be looking past Adonis Stevenson tonight in Montreal, but he's not pretending he hasn't thought about what's next should he win tonight, as he expects he will.
Dawson (31-2, 17 KO) is hoping to land a bigger fight with the Bute-Pascal winner or Bernard Hopkins after this. Dawson lost to Pascal in 2010, and beat Hopkins last year. Dawson and Hopkins also went to a 2011 no-contest.
"I'm definitely going to be watching (Bute-Pascal) and looking at the winner and I'll definitely be lobbying for the winner of that fight. I think Pascal has his hands full that night. Both of them have their hands full. ... I would love to fight Bernard a third time but the question is would he like to see me for a third time? He's making excuses now saying that he didn't get to train well and train properly for the second fight against me. I mean, come on man. Same thing would've happened whether he trained hard or not. It would've been the same outcome. It definitely pissed me off after he fought Cloud on HBO when the commentators were saying that he said he didn't get to train properly because of the shoulder injury which he suffered in the first fight which everyone knows there was no injury."
Dawson doesn't believe that the 48-year-old Hopkins, who now holds the IBF belt, will want to fight a third time, which is probably good news for people who actually watch fights on TV, and better news for promoters who would be forced to try and sell that thing a third time. It's just not an attractive stylistic fight in any way -- Hopkins' veteran trickery doesn't really work with Dawson, and without that, Bernard is left to his faded physical tools. It's just not pretty. It's not that either of them are actually bad fighters or anything like that, but two rights can make a wrong.
The Bute-Pascal winner is a much more palatable option, all things considered. Either way, it can be held in Montreal, where it will sell tickets and have an enthusiastic crowd.
All of this, of course, assumes that Adonis Stevenson doesn't pull the upset tonight, which is hardly a sure bet.