By Daniel Ciminera: I’ve read other articles about this prospective June 19th fight and spoken to a lot of people about it, and the general consensus is that it is an easy win for Dawson.
Probably by knockout. However, whilst I was tempted to agree and say Bad Chad steamrolls Pascal as the only thing he’s done which impressed me, was beat Diaconu one-handed. I don’t care that Diaconu isn’t a world beater, beating anyone one-handed is impressive.
Then I stepped back and looked at it again. I got to thinking that if I had to actually think that hard about it, then it was not as clear cut and simple as it first looked so I looked closer, watched youtube for a few hours and studied the records of both these fighters. I came to the conclusion that Dawson, for me at least, has not proven himself yet. Yes, he looked good against Johnson and Tarver, and yes, he is the only one to hand Tomasz Adamek a professional defeat. But, lets face it, Tarver and Johnson are old, and had to be usurped by the young blood sooner or later, and Adamek hasn’t fought anyone of note., his best win arguably coming over Golota.
Therefore, rather than see this fight as most people are treating it. As Dawson cementing his place as the best in the world. I see this as the next step up the ladder for Chad (anyone touting him to beat Calzaghe back in 07/08 was living in the clouds frankly). A natural progression from beating other novice fighters, and then more experienced fighters who were of no real threat to him, and now he is fighting a relevant, tough opponent of similar experience to himself.
We know Dawson has the makings of a world dominating boxer of the future but, what about Pascal? He’s had less fights than Dawson, though he has been busier since he made his professional début 4 years later than Dawson despite them being the same age therefore in less time has managed to get to the same stage as Dawson who is touted as a great already, and has been for a few years now. I feel Pascal is being heavily underestimated in this fight. We know he can fight, we know he is capable of knocking people out, and we know for sure, especially after the Froch fight, that he is willing and able to stand and trade hard shots with a decent fighter. We also know that he does not quit, even with a dislocated shoulder, he won rounds and ended up winning a lopsided decision over Diaconu. This makes Pascal a very dangerous opponent for anybody.
So there we have it, I am not sure what to expect any more. I know that I am expecting a much better, more explosive and tighter contest than my first impressions led me to believe. Like most I think Dawson definitely has the quality to get past Pascal, or anyone else in the division for that matter, but, I have this niggling feeling in my gut that Pascal is going to ask some serious questions of him. Some of which, I am not entirely sure he will have the answers to. Pascal certainly has less to lose and I feel he will relish his underdog status in this one and is very capable of causing a bit of an upset.
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