Is Chad Dawson washed up?

By Allan Fox: Former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (32-4, 18 KOs) has seen his once promising career plummet in the last two years with him losing 3 out of his last 4 fights. At 32, there are some boxing fans who feel that Dawson is over-the-hill physically and has nothing left in the tank.

In a recent fight against 2nd tier fighter Tommy Karpency, Dawson was shockingly beaten by a 10 round split decision in October of this year. This was supposed to have been a showcase fight for the 6’1” Dawson to put him in position for a world title shot against one of the champions, but instead the defeat has a lot of boxing fans wondering if it’s all over for him.

In fairness to Dawson, he suffered a shoulder injury early in the fight after landing a left hand to the head of Karpency. The injury forced Dawson to fight one-handed for the remainder of the fight, and he looked pretty good in fighting with just one hand. However, Dawson wasn’t dominating Karpency in the first couple of rounds before the injury, and that’s kind of troubling because Karpency is the same guy that was stopped by Andrzej Fonfara in 2012 and easily beaten by Nathan Cleverly in the same year.

Cleverly beat Karpency by the lopsided scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108. The thought is if Dawson can’t beat a guy that Cleverly beat with ease then that doesn’t bode too well for Dawson’s future.

Dawson is no longer ranked in the top 15 at light heavyweight. If he is going to climb his way back up then he’s got a long climb ahead of him. Dawson will need to start fighting frequently against actual contenders if he wants to get in the position to fight for a world title before he gets much older. Dawson will be turning 33 in July, and while that’s not old for a fighter, it might be too old for Dawson.

Dawson needs to start showing some improvement and get out of the funk that he’s currently in. Dawson was knocked out in the 10th round by Andre Ward in 2012, and then stopped in the 1st round by Adonis Stevenson in 2013. There’s no shame in Dawson getting beaten by talented fighters like those two, because a lot of guys have been beaten by them. However, getting beaten by Karpency is cause for concern if you’re Dawson. Karpency hurt Dawson a couple of times in the fight, and Karpency isn’t known for being a puncher.