By William Mackay: WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) and WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) are on course to fight at some point in the coming months at 168lbs, or at least that’s what Ward thinks the fight will take place at.

Dawson basically volunteered to move down in weight from 175lbs to fight Ward in his own weight class rather than facing him at a catchweight, which would seem like the more logical thing for Dawson to do in order to avoid being weight-drained. However, Dawson said after his recent 12 round decision win over Bernard Hopkins that he has no problems with moving down to 168 to fight Ward. He said he’ll fight him either at that weight of 175, as long as the fight can get made. Ward already said he prefers to fight Dawson at 168, and it’s not surprising why he’s saying that. Dawson is a big light heavyweight, both naturally taller and heavier than Ward.

It’ll be a lot harder for Dawson to move down in weight than it would be for Ward to move up in weight, but that’s the point. Dawson will end up slightly weakened if he moves down to fight Ward at 168. Dawson obviously doesn’t know how much this will effect him because he’s never had to move down in weight to face anyone before. This will be the first fight for Dawson at 168, and he’s picking a tough fighter for him to be making that first test.

If Dawson isn’t weakened by the move down, he’s still going to have a tough time against Ward because he’s not much of an inside fighter. Dawson does most of his work from the outside, and he’ll have problems if Ward is able to draw him into an inside battle. I’m not so sure that Ward will have much success in getting the stronger Dawson to fight that kind of fight, because he’s not someone that Ward can rough up and push around like he’s done against fighters like Allan Green, Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler. Dawson is too strong and too athletic to be forced into an inside war against Andre.