By Sean McDaniel: 30-year-old Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) has been one of the best fighters in the light heavyweight division for the past six years. Dawson has been nearly unbeatable during that one time, only losing to Jean Pascal on a cut two years ago in 2010.

Dawson will now be moving down in weight to fight WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) on September 8th a the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

Dawson is taking a huge risk by facing Ward at his weight and in his home city of Oakland. Those are factors that could give Ward a big edge against Dawson, because Ward is hard to fight at home and Dawson could lose strength by moving down in weight to 168 lbs for the fight. But perhaps the biggest worry for Dawson could be Ward’s excellent inside fighting ability.

Dawson has only fought one opponent during his career – Bernard Hopkins – that could fight as well as Ward can on the inside, and he might be able to make the adjustments needed if Ward is successful in forcing an inside brawl. Although Dawson did a great job of being able to handle Hopkins’ inside game, it wasn’t that hard because Hopkins didn’t really put in a strong effort to fight Dawson in close.

Hopkins mostly circled the ring looking to land pot shots followed by a clinch. Ward will also be looking to land pot shots from the outside, but when he comes in close he’ll stay there for as long as he can until either Dawson is able to pry himself loose from Ward’s embrace or the referee breaks the action. But we’ll likely see a lot of repeat action with Ward, as he’ll immediately dive in again to keep the fight in close. The only way that Dawson can manage against a fighter like this is if he keeps moving, landing shots from the outside, and is able to break free quickly from Ward when he gets in close.