Dawson vs. Tarver III: Would There Be Any Fan Interest In This Bout?

By Boxing News - 05/11/2009 - Comments

tarver34452By Dave Lahr: Okay, so what if Antonio Tarver has failed two times to beat Chad Dawson. Boxing fans might like to see if Tarver can win on the third try, don’t you think? After all, Tarver stormed out of the ring on Saturday night after the judges’ scores were announced giving IBF light heavyweight champion Dawson a 12-round unanimous decision by the scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111.

Tarver, 40, could get somehow put together the perfect game plan and possibly get the decision next time around. Goodness knows, Tarver improved by small increments over the last time he lost to Dawson in October 2008, losing by a 118-109 scores at that time. Tarver could revamp his offense, come up with a new plan of attack, and have a good chance of beating Dawson this time.

At the very least, Tarver could make the scores a little closer by perhaps a round or two. Would boxing fans like to see the trilogy and have a chance to see these two fighters go at it for another action packed 12-round bout. Next time, the bout could be PPV, with an asking price of $49.95 for fans. I’m sure fans would scoop up the fight in droves and make this one of the biggest PPV bouts of 2009.

Seriously, hopefully this is the last time that we see Tarver-Dawson, because the two fights were one-sided and dull for the most part. Dawson didn’t want the rematch, boxing fans didn’t want it, but both were trapped because of the rematch clause that Tarver had in his original contract with Dawson.

Not many expected that the outcome would be any different than last time around, and in truth it really wasn’t much different. The same overall pattern of the first fight was followed almost to the letter in the 2nd fight on Saturday night, with Dawson landing the faster and harder punches, winning almost all the rounds in the first half of the fight, and then letting up in the last few rounds, giving Tarver a brief ray of hope.

Last time out, Dawson scored a knockdown in the 12th, but Tarver was more cautious on Saturday night and didn’t come out attacking nearly as hard as he did seven months ago in the first fight. Like in the last fight, Tarver had his moments in the fight, but was unable to match the sheer power, speed and youth of Dawson.

Maybe if Tarver was 10 years younger, he might have done better against Dawson. As it was, Tarver was too old, too slow and not accurate enough with his shots to worry Dawson for any length of time. Dawson turned on and turned off his offense from time to time, taking periods of every round off for a stretch.

It was only during these moments that Tarver was able to open up with his shots and land some blows. Unfortunately, for Tarver Dawson didn’t stay inactive long enough for Tarver to control the bout.



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