By Patrick McHugh: Unbeaten #1 WBC light heavyweight contender Eleider Alvarez (19-0, 10 KOs) will be facing former IBF/WBC 175lb champion Chad Dawson (34-4, 19 KOs) on July 29 on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Alvarez vs. Dawson fight will be the co-feature bout on the Adonis Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) vs. Thomas Williams Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs) card.
It’s hard to see Dawson being able to being able to take Alvarez’s big shots. Dawson has shown to have a chin problem in fights against Andre Ward, Stevenson and Karpency. Alvarez doesn’t have the same kind of power that Stevenson does, but he appears to be a bigger puncher than Ward.
It stands to reason that if Dawson couldn’t handle the power of Ward, he probably won’t be able to take the power of Alvarez for long without getting knocked out. Dawson used to be a very good defensive fighter during the early part of his career. Perhaps he can find some defensive skills for the Alvarez fight, because if he doesn’t tighten his defense, then it’s probably going to end badly for him.
Alvarez is the A-side in this fight despite the fact that the 33-year-old Dawson is the much more accomplished fighter of the two in his career. Alvarez likely won’t accomplish the things Dawson did earlier in his career. Dawson was recognized as the best fighter in the 175lb division for a period of his career. It’s doubtful Alvarez will ever be seen as the best at 175 unless he starts showing some dramatic improvements in his game. Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev, Andre Ward or Stevenson would be bad match-ups for Alvarez.
Alvarez, 32, needs a win to stay in position for a world title shot against Stevenson. Alvarez, a 2008 Olympian from Columbia, is coming off a nice 12 round majority decision win over Isaac Chilemba last November. It was a close fight, but Alvarez showed that he was just a little bit better than Chilemba. Alvarez’s other important wins have come against Anatoliy Dudchenko, Ryno Liebenberg, Alexander Johnson, Edison Miranda, Shawn Hawk and Nicholson Poulard.
#13 IBF Dawson is trying to turn his sagging career around to get back into position to capture another world title. Dawson’s once promising career turned sour in 2012, when he was stopped in the 10th round by Andre Ward in an ill-advised move down to 168 for Dawson. It a poor decision that turned his career upside down. That fight marked the end of Dawson’s success, as he’s lost two out of his last five fights with defeats to Adonis Stevenson and Tommy Karpency. Dawson was knocked out in the 1st round in June 2013.
In October 2014, Karpency defeated Dawson by a 10 round split decision. Dawson said he suffered a shoulder injury early in that fight. Never the less, he still lost to a guy that he shouldn’t have lost to in Karpency. The positive news for Dawson is he’s won his last two fights against Shujaa El Amin and Cornelius White, and he looked good in both fights.