The first few rounds were the closest with Dawson being disturbed by Hopkins fouling. However, he maintained his composure to effectively beat Hopkins with his best punch being the straight left. In still a rough fight, Dawson was cut by a head butt in round four and later in round 11, both men wrestled to the mat. Final scorecards were 114-114, 117-111, and 117-111. Hopkins did not stay in the ring for a post fight interview due to displeasure with the decision, but to the HBO commentators and Fight Night Blog, Dawson clearly won and the even scorecard was ridiculous. The bout was in Atlantic City, NJ where Hopkins has fought many fights. Dawson also credited BHop as a Hall of Fame fighter while at the same time stating he uses dirty tactics basically complimenting and criticizing all in one which seemingly was a reaching out attempt to be nice by Dawson that genuinely did not like Hopkins coming in.
The televised undercard featured a much more exciting bout of heavyweights Seth Mitchell (25-0-1) vs Chazz Witherspoon (30-3) in which Mitchell won by a resurgent third round TKO win after obviously hurt and in trouble early. Witherspoon began by connecting with 24 of 39 power shots in round one according to HBO. Witherspoon's straight right was landing flush and was difficult for Mitchell, former Michigan State football player, to avoid.
Mitchell looked slow and weak to start out, but woke up by round two and came back strong against Witherspoon. By round three, the Spartan was working aggressively with persistent "in-fighting" landing hard power punches including body shots. He connected with a right-left combination to Witherspoon's head dropping him in the middle of round three. Mitchell kept the pressure on with powerful punches until getting the TKO later in the round leaving Witherspoon out on his feet. He landed 42 body shots in the short bout. It was an exciting and active heavyweight bout. Mitchell is not in anyway ready for a Klitschko yet, but I definitely want to see him in the ring again.