Dawson-Ward could be the best fight at 168 in 2012

By Boxing News - 07/31/2012 - Comments

Image: Dawson-Ward could be the best fight at 168 in 2012By Scott Gilfoid: There’s no doubt that the September 8th fight between WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) and Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) is one of the finest match-ups we’ve seen in boxing in quite some time. However, there are some boxing fans that are worried that this bout won’t live up to the billing.

They think Ward and Dawson are two boring fighters that will make for an more boring fight on September 8th. I totally disagree with that belief. Ward is boring because he beats guys so easily that it makes it boring. He’s so far advanced compared to his opposition that he stays in 1st gear most of the time while schooling them. It was that way in his fights against Carl Froch, Sakio Bika, Allan Green and Mikkel Kessler.

But Dawson, 29, is a major talent and he’s going to force Ward to shift into overdrive if he wants to this fight. I don’t even know if that’s going to be enough for Ward, because Dawson, 6’2″, has the size advantage and he’s the more talented fighter of the two in terms of all around boxing skills. Ward is a good inside pressure fighter in the Bernard Hopkins mold. Ward also has a great jab and he tends to collapse forward after he throws it to get inside on an opponent.

Most of the guys that Ward has fought were too slow to keep Ward from getting inside on them. However, Dawson is really fast with his feet and he’s going to be able to move away from Ward to keep from getting caught in his spider-like inside game. For normal fighters, trying to get Ward off of them is like impossible. It’s like a fly wrestling with a spider. The more you try to break free the more webs Ward throws on you to immobilize you. But Dawson is strong enough to break free and he’s quick enough to avoid Ward’s quick first move to try and get inside.



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