Bernard Hopkins underwent an MRI scan on his injured left shoulder in his hometown of Philadelphia on Tuesday. The fighter is claiming that he injured his shoulder when being shoved to the canvas in the second round of his WBC light heavyweight title defense against Chad Dawson at the Los Angeles Staples Center on Saturday night. 

While Hopkins was undergoing his scan, his legal team were filing an appeal with the California State Athletic Commission in an attempt to overturn the result of the fight, and have it changed to a disqualification victory for Hopkins. 

As Hopkins himself stated in an interview this week:

"Dawson should be disqualified because that was no accident. I think it should be a DQ because it was intentional. He intended to hurt me, period. I'm asking for a disqualification because of the intent. I leaned over because I missed a punch, that's normal. What's not normal is when a guy raises you up a couple of inches and throws you to the canvas, which caused me to hit my elbow, which sent a shock up to my shoulder, which caused the dislocation.''

"Have I ever picked up a guy and deliberately tried to hurt them? No. It's clear this guy tried to hurt me. I believe that it wasn't a move boxers do, but the game-changer came when he wrapped his arm around my leg and threw me to the canvas. That makes me argue the intent was to hurt me. I will live and die with that. I think I've watched it 30 times. How does the referee miss that and give him a knockout?"

The incident occurred when Hopkins missed with a straight right hand early in the second round, and his momentum carried him over Dawson shoulder and across his back. Dawson subsequently grabbed Hopkins by the leg, lifted him off the canvas and then shoved him backward. Hopkins stumbled then crashed awkwardly onto the edge of the ring, landing on his left side. The fighter  winced in pain, and it was immediately apparent that Hopkins had injured himself.

Referee Pat Russell called "time" and then asked for the ringside doctor. The doctor asked Hopkins what was the problem, and the Philly veteran explained that he believed he had dislocated his left shoulder in the fall, but was adamant that he wanted to continue the fight, even with one hand. 

The doctor informed Hopkins and the referee that that would be impossible.(In 2000, Hopkins came back from a similar incident, knocking out Antwun Echols in the 10th round after being shoved to the canvas and injuring his right shoulder in the fifth. On that occasion, the referee gave Hopkins 5 minutes of recovery time.) 

Bizarrely, referee Pat Russell did not rule Dawson's shove to be a foul and instead awarded him the WBC crown on a second round TKO. Had Russell followed normal procedure and ruled the shove as an accidental foul, the fight would have been declared a No Contest, and Hopkins would have retained his title. 

Dawson was awarded the TKO victory despite the fact that no punch had been landed in the incident that decided the outcome of the contest.

The near 9000 crown in attendance at the Staples Center seemed to take the opinion that Hopkins was faking the injury, and began to chant ''Bull Sh**!'' Dawson also apeared to think that Hopkins was making the most of the incident, and poured scorn on his rival with a volley of expletives. 

Up until the shove, Dawson had looked ominously good, moving extremely well and punching with authority. The younger man by 17 years, Dawson looked at least 10 pounds heavier than Hopkins on the night. 

Hopkins is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, and their CEO Richard Schaefer had this to say about the incident and its potential outcome:

"Based on the feedback we've gotten from so many people it seems pretty clear that it should be overturned. The fact is, everybody I have talked to says this was a wrong call. So that is what we are filing for, a disqualification. The fact is, lifting Bernard up by the legs is not just something that happened like a push. You lift someone up to make them lose their balance, and that is what happened here.That to me is flagrant, and it should be ruled as such."

In the meantime, Hopkins is recuperating in Philadelphia, and will get the results of his MRI scan on Friday morning.

"I'm in a sling and it's not comfortable," said Hopkins. "I've been taking the Motrin they gave me, but I'm a vitamin guy, not an aspirin guy. They're like 500 milligram pills, but I'm only taking half at a time. I got to keep a pillow under my arm, so I don't move so much when I sleep. I've been battling that, but I can deal with it. I can't get my jacket on without hurting my shoulder. I got my daughter helping me get my arm in my damn jacket. I just hope when I hear the MRI results that I don't have to go under the knife and that there is no tear or anything. Whatever it is, I just want to get started on my rehab and set up what I'm going to do next."