By Jason Kim: Once again, Antonio Tarver (26-6, 19 KOs) came up short against undefeated Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs), although this time Tarver, 40, wasn’t beaten nearly so bad in losing a 12-round unanimous decision tonight at the Hard Rock Café, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111.
Dawson, 26, seemed to tire out in the last three rounds (10 through 12) from the heavy pressure that Tarver was putting on him. Unlike the first bout, Tarver three more shots, but his aim wasn’t nearly as good as Dawson, who landed 209 of his 677 punches thrown compared to Tarver’s 121 of 749.
However, just by throwing a lot of punches, Tarver was able to impress one of the judges who scored it somewhat close at 116-112. I saw the fight firmly in Dawson’s control, as he was never in danger from Tarver’s high volume attack.
Dawson attacked in brief flurries in every round, landing the much harder shots and more accurate. Tarver, though, looked like he was intent on trying to wear Dawson down with his work rate. It partially worked, because Dawson looked pretty tired by the last three rounds of the bout.
However, by then Tarver was well behind in the fight and needed to score either a knockout or multiple knockdowns in the last three rounds to get the win. It wasn’t going to happen, because Tarver’s shots didn’t have nearly enough power in them to trouble Dawson, who took the shots that leaked through his gloves without any problems. Dawson blocked by far most of Tarver’s efforts to land, leaving Tarver with a poor connect rate in the fight.
In the end, Tarver lost once again. However, Tarver might be bolstered by the fact that he fought Dawson somewhat close, although a loss is a loss. There won’t be any more rematches after this fight, because it’s pretty clear that if Dawson and Tarver fought 100 times, Tarver lose all 100 bouts and the closest he could come is probably what he did tonight.
Tarver is going to have to ask himself whether he wants to stick around boxing after this defeat. Tarver won’t be getting another shot at Dawson unless he sticks around and beats a top ranked fighter to become Dawson’s mandatory, but what would that prove?
Tarver will likely lose again. He might be better off going after one of the other light heavyweight champion such as Adrian Diaconu, Hugo Garay or Zsolt Erdei. None of them are particularly popular, but Tarver would at least be able to stay relevant in the light heavyweight division if he were able to beat one of them and grab their titles.
As for Dawson, I think he gave Bernard Hopkins the perfect excuse not to fight him. Hopkins probably wasn’t impressed with Dawson’s performance, especially the way that Dawson tired in the later rounds. Likewise, Dawson probably didn’t do enough to create a demand for him to fight Hopkins by boxing fans.
More than likely, Dawson is going to have to be content with defending his IBF title against the best possible opponent available for him, but that probably won’t be Hopkins.