Hopkins still wants more

PHILADELPHIA – Bernard Hopkins has his belt back. Actually, he never relinquished it.

After losing a controversial decision to Chad Dawson last Saturday night in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia fighter refused to hand over his World Boxing Council light-heavyweight belt, steadfastly believing he had been fouled.

When the judges asked Hopkins for the belt, he refused. Friday, he described their reaction simply as “headlights.”

Two days ago, the WBC ruled in Hopkins’ favor, changing the decision of the bout from Dawson’s winning by technical knockout to a technical draw because Dawson had lifted Hopkins and thrown him to the mat in the second round.

Still, the 46-year-old Hopkins isn’t satisfied. He wants the bout to be ruled a disqualification.

“It can be whatever they want it to be when they watch the tape and see the ref made the wrong call,” said Hopkins, who suffered a dislocated shoulder. “He didn’t follow the rules. First of all, you can’t get TKO’d unless you get punched.

“When you deliberately try to hurt me by picking me off my feet with his one knee, and having me off balance so I can fall, and then nudging me down with your shoulder hard, not soft,” Hopkins said, “your intent was to hurt me in the worst way.”

Friday, Hopkins saw a doctor about his inflamed left shoulder. He said he will need three to six weeks of therapy and will find out next week whether there is structural damage.

He plans to return to the ring in March to defend his title. And it doesn’t look as if a rematch with Dawson, 29, is on the horizon.

“I don’t think the fans would want to see it,” Hopkins said. “He can’t promote, the tickets did sloppy, the pay-per-view, I’m not bragging about this because it hurts me, too.

“As far as I’m concerned, Chad Dawson will never be in the ring with me, in life,” Hopkins continued. “Because he don’t deserve it. He’s not in my class. And he has a different agenda. He said all promotion, ‘I’m going to be the fighter that ends Bernard’s career.’ … I knew what he meant by that now.”

Dawson told ESPN after the WBC’s decision to take back his belt that Hopkins “knew he couldn’t beat me. That night he found a way out. I think it’s wrong.”

The Saturday after the bout, Dawson made several disparaging comments about Hopkins in an interview with HBO. Hopkins said he felt disrespected by Dawson’s comments, in which he was called a gangster and a coward, and accused of faking the injury.