By Sean McDaniel: With undefeated IBF light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs) talking about moving down to the super middleweight division to look for some big fights, I’m now wondering just how well the 26-year-old Dawson would do against World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (41-1, 31 KOs) and WBC title holder Carl Froch.
These are two of the more popular title holders in the division, although IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute is also quite popular as well in Canada.
If stripping down seven pounds doesn’t hurt Dawson too much in the way of strength, he’ll have the size and speed advantage over Kessler and Froch, both of which are around 6’1.”
The speed advantage and power will be huge assets for Dawson, who clearly hits harder than either Kessler or Froch.
Carl Froch I think without making any adjustments in his current boxing style, I think Dawson is more than good enough to beat the likes of Froch without too many problems. Froch has good power, but he’s painfully slow in terms of hand speed, and his defense if very poor. Froch was trailing in the 12th round against Jermain Taylor in his last fight, and had to knock Taylor out to get the win.
Taylor has a history of fading late in his fights, which is exactly what he did against Froch. Some people say that Dawson is similar to Taylor in how he fights. That’s partially true, because Dawson does start well, winning many of the early rounds with his hand speed and combinations.
However, Dawson has problems late in the fight, sometimes getting knocked down and other times just giving the rounds away by not throwing shots. Dawson’s chin isn’t as bad as Taylor’s, though, and his stamina isn’t nearly as bad either.
I think Froch wouldn’t have the same opportunity overcome a bad start with Dawson like was able to do against Taylor. Froch has a great chin and would no doubt be able to take the heavy shots from Dawson without being knocked out, but I doubt that Froch could escape a fight without being knocked down once or twice by Dawson.
Prediction: Dawson by 12-round unanimous decision.
Mikkel Kessler This would be a much tougher fight for Dawson, because Kessler is very technically sound and would potentially cause some problems with his jabbing, movement and combinations. However, the one factor that Dawson would have in his favor is that Kessler doesn’t fight well on the inside, preferring to fight on the outside.
Dawson also fights better on the outside and has problems with fighters that pressure him. Kessler doesn’t pressure his opponents, and instead uses his jab to set up right hands and combinations. Kessler has good hand speed but nothing like Dawson. In Kessler’s fight with Calzaghe, Mikkel had problems with Calzaghe’s hand speed and combinations.
Kessler didn’t do well when Calzaghe began to throw fast combinations and found himself falling behind when Calzaghe upped the volume of punches. Although I think Kessler has perhaps the better talent, I think the speed and power advantage for Dawson would be too much for Kessler to have to deal with.
Kessler hasn’t fought since October 2008 due to some promoter problems. Hopefully, Kessler doesn’t stay out of the ring too much longer because he’s hurting himself by being away from boxing this length of time.
Prediction: Dawson by a 12-round decision.
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