By Allan Fox: It’s been two years since Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) suffered an 11th round technical decision loss to Jean Pascal (26-2-1, 16 KO’s) in a fight that was halted after Dawson suffered a bad cut over his left eye from a clash of heads in the 11th.

The fight was stopped and it went to the cards and Dawson lost. The defeat has really bugged Dawson ever since then, and he’s decided to try and avenge it against Pascal by fighting him on March 23rd in Canada in a still to be determined venue.

Dawson recently picked up the World Boxing Council 175 pound title after beating Bernard Hopkins by a 12 round majority decision earlier this year in April. However, Dawson’s good luck ran out in his next fight when he was badly beaten in a 10th round knockout loss to WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward last September. Dawson was over-matched in that fight and possibly weight-drained from moving down in weight from 175 to 168. However, in looking at differences in talent between the two fights it’s pretty clear that Ward would have beaten Dawson even if the fight had taken place at 175. Dawson had no answer to Ward’s jab, speed and left hook in that fight.

Dawson is going to be experiencing the same kinds of problems against Pascal that he he did the last time he fought him. Simply put, Pascal is just too fast and explosive for Dawson. That’s not going to change in the rematch. Pascal may have lost since the last time they fought but he still has the game to beat Dawson. I don’t think Dawson can change his game around to slow the fight down or let his hands go enough to beat Pascal.

Hopkins was able to beat Pascal by keeping the action on the outside and landing hard combinations and moving away. Hopkins also gave Pascal a lot of problems with his inside skills. Dawson doesn’t have those skills, so he won’t be able to rely on that part of his game to beat Pascal like Hopkins did.