By Eric Thomas: Undefeated WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (26-0, 17 KOs) defeated challenger Glen Johnson (47-12-2, 32 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night, at the St. Pete Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Though the 39 year-old Johnson was unhappy afterwards, feeling as if he had won the fight, it really wasn’t that close of a fight at all. I had Dawson winning quite easily nine rounds to three, beating the slow, economical-punching Johnson with ease. The Tampa crowd, clearly favoring their hometown favorite, Johnson, made it seem as if the fight was closer than it really was by screaming every time Johnson would land a punch.
However, Johnson was mostly getting drilled eight to ten times for every shot that he was landing and getting badly outclassed in the process by the young 25 year-old Dawson. I had Dawson winning the first five rounds, hitting Johnson with lightning fast jabs and blistering combinations to the head and body. Johnson, a busy fighter in his youth, was landing few shots as he plodded after Dawson, taking tons of shots by the young champion. It wasn’t until the 6th round when Johnson finally fought well enough to perhaps win a round. I don’t think he actually did enough to win the round, mind you, but I figured that the judges’ might give him this round since he had been shut out during the first five rounds.
Dawson back strong in the 7th though 9th rounds, hitting the slow-moving Johnson with blistering shots to the head, and keeping him stuck on the outside. Johnson continued to apply a lot of pressure on Dawson, although it wasn’t effective pressure because he was mostly following after him and throwing wild shots without hitting anything. Some of his punches did get through every now and then but it wasn’t enough for him to win the rounds. If you listened to the crowd, you’d have believed that Johnson was beating Dawson quite handily but the fact of the matter was, Johnson was losing by a landslide, looking old and slow against the young champion.
In the 10th round, Dawson got a little careless and was nailed by a big right hand from Johnson late in the round, staggering Dawson. Johnson was a little too eager after hurting Dawson and hence was unable to land anything significant to finish him off. It’s too bad because that was Johnson’s only chance to win the fight and he blew it by being too anxious and not placing his punches well enough.
In the 11th round, Johnson continued to put a lot of pressure on Dawson, who didn’t look as if he was recovered fully from the previous round, and hit Dawson with a number of excellent right hands. It was a good round for Johnson, but it wasn’t anything more than a 10-9 round, and he obviously needed much more than that because he had given away so many of the earlier rounds of the fight. In the 12th round, Dawson came back strong, using his footwork, jabs and quick flurries to confound the aging Johnson and keep him at a distance. For his part, Johnson landed a number of shots in the round but he was out-punched by a significant margin by Dawson. In the end, Dawson was way too fast, too smart and too classy for Johnson.