By Chris Williams: IBF light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (27-4, 19 KOs) takes on what is probably the best light heavyweight in the division at this time in Chad Dawson (26-0, 17 KOs) in a 12-round title bout at the Palms Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dawson, 26, who’s much better fighting than he is at talking, has looked very uncomfortable jawing back and forth with the trash talking Tarver, and has gotten the worst of it in many of the exchanges. However, it Dawson will have a chance to show that talking doesn’t win fights when he steps in the ring with the 39 year-old Tarver for the IBF title.
Both fighters hold victories over Eric Harding and Glen Johnson. Tarver has the better chin and is the better talker but that’s about it. Dawson, who has been knocked down in bouts with Harding and Tomasz Adamek, is vulnerable to big punches especially in the later rounds of the bout. Whereas with Tarver, he can be outworked by fighters that come up at him with hard combinations like in his fight with Bernard Hopkins and Glen Johnson. However, if he’s allowed to dictate the pace of his fights with his jab and reach, he’s able to control the fight at a leisurely pace.
At 39, he’s slowing down and not quite the same fighter he was five years ago. He’s still good enough to beat most of the other more limited light heavyweights in the division, like Clinton Woods for example, but he probably will have his hands full against the blazing speed of Dawson on Saturday night.
In Wednesday’s press conference, Tarver had this to say about Dawson, “I’ve been a fixture in this sport for eleven years. I’ve been here before. Dawson hasn’t done anything. He’ll have a game plan but all that crap is going to be thrown out the window once he gets hit in the mouth.”
Tarver’s hoping that his experience against slightly better opposition will work for him on Saturday night, making it overcome what appears to be the superior talent of Dawson. Tarver holds victories over Roy Jones Jr., Montell Griffin and Reggie Johnson, all good fighters. However, in the case of Jones, he wasn’t the same fighter that he was earlier in his career by the time he fought Tarver, and had recently depleted his body by taking off a lot of muscle after trimming down from the heavyweight division where he won a title.
The wins over Griffin and Johnson were good, though, but neither fighter has the size, speed or the combinations that Dawson has. This is what might be the problem for Tarver, because he can’t look at his past victories and assume that equates to him being good enough to beat Dawson, because he’s a totally different fighter than Griffin, Jones and Johnson.
Also, Tarver is older now and hasn’t had a real good opponent since his loss to Hopkins in June 2006. In fact, Tarver has taken it easy beating the likes of Elvir Muriqi and Danny Santiago, before taking on Woods for the IBF title in April. No offense to Woods, but I don’t consider him in the class of Dawson. He’d lose to him just as bad, and probably much worse, than he did to Tarver.
For his part, Dawson had this to say in Wednesday’s press conference: “It’s time to put up or shut up. Your mouth (pointing at Tarver) can’t fight for you once you get in that ring. On Saturday night, you’re going to get it. This fight has gotten personal. I don’t like that dude. I won’t like him after the fight and I won’t like him two years from now. He irritates everyone. All people keep telling me is to shut his mouth up. That’s what I intend to do.”