By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (27-0, 17 KOs) easily defeated IBF title holder Antonio Tarver (27-5, 19 KOs) on Saturday night, dropping him once in the 12th round and beating him by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision at the Palms Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dawson, 26, had seemingly lost the war of words with the well-spoken Tarver leading up to the fight, but in the area of where it counts – in the boxing ring – Dawson showed himself to be the far superior fighter.
Tarver, 39, fought well in brief patches in the fight, but only when Dawson would inexplicably cover up and move around the ring, playing defense. When Dawson wanted to fight, though, he would turn it on like a button, hitting Tarver with blazingly fast punches and outworking him badly. “My work rate was better, I was younger and faster than him,” said Dawson after the fight.
Tarver fought aggressive in the early rounds, coming after Dawson with jabs and left hands. However, he wasn’t able to throw his punches in combination form much of them time, lacked power and was much slower than Dawson When Dawson landed shots, he would throw a flurry of blinding punches within seconds, and thrown with power. This had the effect of erasing anything that Tarver had done previous in the rounds, because it stood far more than the weak and slow shots Tarver was throwing. Dawson pounded away at Tarver in the second round, hitting him with speedy combinations and backing him up.
Tarver, however, kept pressing forward pushing the fight at Dawson but he wasn’t effective in his aggression like Dawson was. When Dawson was throwing his fast punches, Tarver would stop punching altogether and just cover up like a turtle, waiting for Dawson to stop punching. The problem was, Dawson rarely let up on throwing punches in the 2nd round and gave Tarver little if any chance to throw any punches of his own. Dawson let up on Tarver in the 3rd round, moving around the ring and playing defense.
It seemed strange that he would do this, because he was totally dominating Tarver, who looked inept in the first two rounds and not in the same class as Dawson. In the first half of the round, Dawson fought well, about the same as he did in the first two rounds, but in the last half of the round, he just covered up and let Tarver get in his slower punches.
Initially, Tarver looked painfully slow and weak against Dawson in the round, but near the end of the round, Tarver looked more confident and warmed up, tagging Dawson with a big left hand to the head. Dawson came back well in rounds four through six, once again out-punching Tarver with blazing fast combinations to the head and body. Tarver landed one good left hand in the 4th, but the rest of the round was all Dawson as he tagged Tarver at will.
In the 5th round, Dawson flurried on Tarver at the start of the round, hitting him with a huge number of shots within seconds. Tarver looked helpless to stop Dawson, and appeared worried. At the end of the round, Dawson again flurried on Tarver and had his head flying multiple directions from the shots he was absorbing.
Dawson took the 6th round off, letting Tarver throw punches while he covered up and moved around the ring. It seemed like Dawson couldn’t fight well unless he was giving Tarver a chance every once in awhile, which appeared to motivate Dawson to get revenge in the next rounds. Without this mercy-type move by Dawson, the fight probably would have been an embarrassingly easy fight, with Tarver having no chance at doing anything other than to take punishment.
As it was, the fight still ended up being totally one-sided, as Tarver didn’t have the raw talent to compete with Dawson. Never mind technical ability, Dawson just had way too much raw talent for the speed and power limited Tarver to ever hope to beat. Rounds seven through ten were totally one-sided with Dawson hitting Tarver like he was a speed bag.
Dawson gave Tarver a chance in the first half of the 9th round, letting him land a lot of left hand shots. However, Dawson turned it on in the last minute of the round, hitting him with fast shots thrown with a lot of power, and appeared to take the round from Tarver. By the 10th, Tarver looked tired and beaten, perhaps knowing he was losing the fight by a landslide.
Dawson let up on Tarver again, this time in the 11th round, and moved around the ring and covering up. However, like in the 9th, Dawson came alive in the last minute of the round and tagged Tarver with a huge number of power shots to the head. In the 12th round, Tarver came out looking for the knockout, chasing after Dawson and throwing hard shots to the head.
Thinking knockout, Tarver found himself on the canvas after walking into a big right hand and getting knocked down. Tarver was unhappy with the knockdown, but he clearly touched both gloves to the canvas after getting hit with a right hand that he didn’t see coming. Instead of going after Tarver, like most fighters probably would, Dawson backed off and covered up, allowing Tarver to dominate the remainder of the round. Tarver landed a couple of good shots, one of them a left uppercut that snapped Dawson’s head back, but it wasn’t enough to hurt him or knock him down.
After the fight, Tarver had this to say, “I didn’t get hurt. (Referring to his 12th round knockdown). It was a slap, a push down on the knockdown. They made it a 10-8 round. Overall, I should have had a busier work rate. …He threw a lot of punches. Ordinarily, I blocked a lot on my hands and my chest and on my arms, but his work rate was a lot better today. He was a busier fighter. To judge my performance, I did well. I didn’t land my left that much, but I had other weapons, I we used those. “
