By Dave Lahr: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-0, 17 KO’s) easily defeated Glen Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KO’s) last night by a 12 round unanimous decision in a long awaited rematch for the interim World Boxing Council light heavyweight title at the XL Center, in Hartford, Connecticut. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113.

The scores of the fight where a little surprising as the 27-year-old Dawson appeared to win 11 of the 12 rounds of the fight, only losing the 1st round from my view of the fight. Johnson, 40, just looked too old and slow to do much against the must faster and more defensively skilled Dawson. Johnson looked like his old self in the first round of the fight, landing powerful hooks to the head and body of Dawson, and connecting at a high rate.

If the bout had stayed under these conditions then I have little doubt that Johnson would have won the fight without any problems. However, he wasn’t the same fighter after the opening round and suddenly began to look old and slow, missing with many of his attempts to connect against the taller 6’3” Dawson. In the meantime, the southpaw Dawson took charge of the bout throwing constant jabs and straight lefts to the head of Johnson.

In the 2nd round, Johnson fought well in the opening minute of the round, landing some powerful combinations to the head of Dawson. It looked like a continuation of the 1st round with Dawson eating some big shots and trying to match Johnson with jabs,. However, Dawson came back with some power shots near the end of the round and scored with a flurry to steal the round. Dawson showed what he can do when he’s concentrating full on his task and letting his hands go.

In the 3rd round, Dawson began to unload on the slower Johnson with hard combinations, catching him as he came forward trying to land his own shots. Johnson didn’t even try to protect himself as he came shuffling forward and had no protection from the stiff lefts and right hands that Dawson was raining down on him. Dawson looked much bigger than Johnson and has a longer reach to get his shots without having to worry about getting hit in return.

Dawson used a lot of side to side movement in the round and found out quickly that Johnson was unable to land much when he used any kind of movement. Early in the round, Dawson landed a huge right hand to the head of Johnson that had the crowd giving a lot of applause. The punch didn’t seem to bother Johnson any, but it showed that Dawson was having his way with the older fighter.

In the 4th and 5th rounds, Dawson’s constant movement began to upset the fans, who started booing him a little. However, you can’t blame Dawson for not wanting to stand still directly in front of Johnson because that would have been playing into the hands of Johnson and given him an edge. Still, I have no doubts that Dawson would have beaten Johnson with ease no matter how he decided to fight him.

Dawson used his jab mainly in rounds six through nine, pounding the slow moving Johnson as he came forward each time. Dawson switched from southpaw to orthodox stance from time to time. It didn’t have much effect on the outcome, because Dawson dominated Johnson regardless of his stance. In the meantime, Johnson was losing every round on my card, and looking really old. It’s incredible that two of the judges were giving Johnson rounds because he was mainly drilled in the head in each round and not landing. It must have been case of the judges giving Johnson mercy rounds because I don’t see how he was wining them by having Dawson blasting him in the face over and over again.

In rounds nine through twelve, Dawson continued with his one-sided domination of Johnson. By this point, the fight was no longer interesting to watch because Johnson looked like a walking punching bag. He rarely was able to land anything during the last four rounds of the bout and looked very old.

It’s sad that Dawson was forced to fight Johnson again, because he had no interest in doing it. However, boxing fans wanted to see the bout as did HBO. They got their wish, but the fight failed to live up to expectations. It’s not surprising because Johnson was two years older and now 40-years-old, while Dawson is 27, and in his prime.