By Chris Williams: Unfortunately for International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (27-0, 17 KOs), he has to face Antonio Tarver again, this time on March 14th in a rematch that few people want to see. However, once Dawson, 26, destroys Tarver for the second time, it’s time to look forward into the future for other potential fights for Dawson, who is considered to be the best fighter in the light heavyweight division at this time.
Despite the light heavyweight division being almost barren of stars, there’s a few fighters that Dawson can go after, starting with Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins. Those two fighters would bring in a huge payday for Dawson while at the same time giving him an ever bigger name by destroying these two fighters.
However, for some reason, neither of them are particularly interested in facing the likes of Dawson, perhaps feeling afraid that they might lose to him. Right now, I’d pick Dawson over either of them and see him winning by a lopsided decision against both. Whether they want to fight him or not, I would still make a major move in trying to lure them into a fight by calling them out repeatedly in the media, making it clear to all that they don’t want to step in the ring with Dawson.
Below, I’ve listed some potential opponents for Dawson in the near future.
Bernard Hopkins – At 44, Hopkins appears to be looking more for big money fights against fighters that he matches up well with. Dawson doesn’t appear to fit the bill in either category given his still emerging popularity and his excellent speed, power and boxing skills. This is a fight that Hopkins would likely lose badly, because of his lack of speed and big time power. All of his advantages that he held recently in his victory over the slower, smaller Kelly Pavlik would be negated by Dawson and he’d find himself without any real advantages.
Joe Calzaghe – Joe is in the same boat as Hopkins, except that he’s leaning towards retirement and is still undecided. Though Calzaghe may decide on taking a fight with Dawson, I tend to doubt it. Dawson is too much of a threat to him and would present a lot of problems to him offensively. With Calzaghe barely beating an old Hopkins this past year, I couldn’t see handling the speed and power of Dawson without losing handily. I think Joe knows his limitations and won’t take the fight in order to protect his legacy from a loss that would taint it. That’s too bad, because a win over Dawson is what Calzaghe needs more than anything to try and make up for his lack of big name fighters on his resume. Think of it this way: Even if Calzaghe would lose, which is the likely case, he might still end up looking good if he can make the fight competitive with Dawson. I don’t think he would, but it would still show a lot of courage for him to take the fight, so he’d have that going for him at least.
Paul Williams – This is a bad idea for a fight, because Williams is too thin and hasn’t even proved himself as a light middleweight, much less having to move up all the way to the super middleweight (168) to meet Dawson at a catch weight. Sure, the fight would be popular as a circus-like attraction, but it would hardly be fair to the rail thin Williams. The fight would be meaningful if Williams can beat a few good light middleweights or move up and beat a couple of good middleweights like Pavlik or Arthur Abraham, but minus that, the fight has a mismatch written all over it. Unlike Manny Pacquiao who moved up a couple of divisions to beat an old faded, weight depleted Oscar De La Hoya, Dawson wouldn’t be old or weight depleted like De La Hoya and would likely give the stick-like Williams a severe beating.
Mikkel Kessler The current WBA super middleweight division, Kessler would be an ideal fight for Dawson, maybe the most realistic one out there for him. However, Kessler isn’t well known in the U.S., and has made a huge mistake by fighting mostly European opponents. As such, he’s not a big star in the U.S. and it’s hard to tell how good he really is. But, a fight between him and Dawson would be more than exciting while it lasted. I think he’d lose, because he couldn’t handle the speed of Calzaghe, and if he can’t handle Joe’s speed, then Kessler will have major headaches against the faster and more powerful Dawson.
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