By Chris Williams: International Boxing Federation light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs) defeated Antonio Tarver (26-6, 19 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night, beating the 40-year-old Tarver about as bad as he did last time out. Tarver tried to make a fight of it this time, coming at Dawson, firing off a lot of punches, but the fight looked mostly like the first fight last year in October, which concluded with Dawson winning by a lopsided 12-round decision.

The scores were a little closer on Saturday night with Tarver coming close on one judges’ scorecard, 116-112, but not doing well on the other two, 117-111 and 117-111. Dawson, 26, hurt Tarver late in the 4th round when he tagged Tarver with a huge left hand.

Tarver backed up and covered up, waiting for Dawson to attack him with follow up punches. However, Dawson let Tarver off the hook by aiming his punches to Tarver’s midsection rather than his head. It could be that Dawson didn’t realize that he had Tarver hurt and figured that he’d just go about his business like before, mixing his punches up.

But Dawson let a golden opportunity slip away and missed out on a chance to end things early without Tarver getting a chance to muddy the water later on. Dawson was very impressive in the first six rounds of the fight, landing the bigger and more accurate shots, and looking as if he had won five of the six rounds.

In the 7th round, Dawson dominated the first two minutes and twenty seconds of the round, but then relaxed in the last forty seconds and let Tarver open up with a series of left hands as the round ran out. I still don’t think it was enough to erase the previous two and half minutes of the round in which Dawson had landed the much harder and more numerous shots, but it looks as if the judges’ were impressed by Tarver’s late surge.

Fighters, especially older fighters, know that they can impress judges if they come on in the last 30 seconds of the round to steal it by throwing a lot of punches. This is why I think it’s up to the judges’ to understand this trend and look at the entire round as a whole instead of when a veteran fighter tried to come on late after having done little in two-thirds of the round.

As it is, no way could I reward Tarver for his lack of work in the round just because he came on in the last forty seconds.

Dawson went back to dominating the fight in the 8th round, throwing a lot of powerful left hands to the head of Tarver. Earlier in the round, Dawson landed a left hand followed quickly by a triple right hook to the head, each one scoring well. Tarver landed one big left hand in the round, but that was about it. His punch output was low, as Dawson ducked many of Tarver’s punches and made him miss badly.

In the 9th round, Dawson outworked Tarver, throwing jabs and straight left hands. Tarver continued to miss a lot of punches and only connected on a lower percentage of his shots in the round. It was another round for Dawson.

Dawson fought beautifully in the 10th, making Tarver miss over and over again as he would attempt to land big shots. Tarver was making a big mistake of trying to load up on his shots instead of focusing on landing his jab and then working of it.

Dawson succeeded in making Tarver look his age in the round by ducking many of Tarver’s shots and landing with left hands. Although Dawson was winning the rounds, his style of fighting was more liken to Floyd Mayweather Jr., and it wasn’t exactly interesting to watch.

However, many boxing fans seem to enjoy watching Mayweather’s hit and run style of fighting, so perhaps the same kind of fans were impressed with what Dawson was doing against Tarver. I know I wasn’t.

In the 11th round, Dawson controlled the first two minutes of the round, landing a lot of left hands and one huge right. However, in the last minute of the round, Dawson eased off and covered up, and let Tarver tee off on him for awhile. Dawson was still able to block many of the shots, but the image of Tarver finishing the round strong likely impressed the judges enough for them to give him the round. I wasn’t impressed, because Tarver had been badly outworked in the first two minutes of the round and had been hit with some huge shots in that time.

The 12th round was all Dawson, as he attacked Tarver with hard left hands to the head and body. Tarver landed some shots later in the round, but again, it wasn’t enough for me to give him the round because Dawson had landed more shots and with much bigger power.