Dawson-Johnson: Will Glen Have Better Luck This Time?

By Boxing News - 08/27/2009 - Comments

By Jim Dower: For many people who saw the Glen Johnson vs. Chad Dawson fight last year in April, they felt that the 40-year-old Johnson had done enough to win the 12-round decision over Dawson. It was a fight in which both Dawson and Johnson went toe-to-toe through much of the fight with Dawson landing the faster shots and nice combinations, but Johnson taking advantage of Dawson’s frequent lulls in activity by outworking Dawson during these dry spells.

After the fight, Dawson felt that he had won the bout easily enough not to warrant giving Johnson a rematch. However, many boxing fans were not pleased with the outcome and continued to talk about it long after the fight had taken place, complaining that Johnson should have won the bout. More than a year has elapsed since then but finally Johnson will get his chance to gain revenge by fighting Dawson on November 7th, at the XL Center, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dawson dominated Johnson when he was throwing punches, landing shots by the dozens to the face and midsection of Johnson in rounds one through eight. However, Dawson took far too many breaks between his flurries, which allowed Johnson to pound Dawson while he covered up on the ropes.

In rounds nine through eleven, Johnson took control over the fight and pounded Dawson while he covered up trying to block the shots. Dawson looked tired and not comfortable with the heavy pressure that Johnson was putting on him during these rounds. In the 12th round with the fight on the line, Dawson turned his offense back on and ended up winning the round with flurries to the head of Johnson.

After the fight, Johnson was unhappy with the result feeling that he should have been given the decision. It was a very close fight and it could have gone either way. It wasn’t good for Johnson that he didn’t finish strong. If he had won the last round, Johnson would have likely been awarded the decision. Instead, it was Dawson who outworked Johnson in the 12th round and ended up getting the win.

On the undercard of the fight, exciting light middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo (16-1, 13 KO’s) will be fighting Harry Yorgey (22-0-1, 10 KO’s) in a10-round bout. Yorgey, 31, is coming off a 9th round upset win over Ronald Hearns on March 28th. Yorgey showed a lot of power in that fight, knocking Hearns down repeatedly and stopping him. In his fight before that, Yorgey defeated Jason LeHoullier by a 12-round majority decision in August 2008.

Angulo, 27, stopped Gabriel Rosado in the 2nd round on August 7th, knocking Rosado down twice in the 2nd round before referee Russell Mora stopped the bout. This was an important fight for Angulo, who was defeated by Kermit Cintron by a 12-round unanimous decision on May 30th, 2009 in a World Boxing Council light middleweight title eliminator bout.

The loss was a bitter one for Angulo, who came into the fight feeling ill but decided to go ahead and fight anyway. The damage from the loss knocked Angulo down in the light middleweight rankings. However, Angulo is still ranked number # 5 WBC, #6 WBA and #8 WBO.