Bernard Hopkins, WBC and Ring Magazine Light Heavyweight World Champion

“I chose to continue to fight and defend what I worked so hard to get. So why not get all of the benefits of what I’ve been doing for 20-something years and then walk away when it’s time?

“I think that it’ll come down to who is the better fighter. The better fighter, the better person, the better strategist and who wants it the most.

“It really would be gratifying to me and happy for me to sit back in my 60’s and hear commentators say, “This guy is four fights away from beating Bernard Hopkins’ record.

“In today’s world where, unfortunately, most athletes, either don’t stay as focused long enough after they get a taste of what we call success in life, or just run into the wrong match, the wrong person. So I’m going to have fun in the second half of my life.

“Well, Chad Dawson said something that made sense. He’s going to be throwing a lot of punches, but I’m going to be connecting a lot of punches. He’s going to throw all the punches he wants, but I’m going to be connecting more than he is throwing.

“I’m coming in there with an aggressive game, but a smart game. If people think that the last two fights of my career were the old Bernard Hopkins from the Blue Horizon to Atlantic City days in the early 90’s, then I’m saying that they should watch this fight.

“The bottom line is they are going to see a better, a more aggressive, smart fighter in me when I beat Chad Dawson.

“When you look at my r