By Jim Dower: Former two-time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) was badly humbled by WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KO’s) in an 11 round technical decision loss on August 14th. It wasn’t so much the end of the fight that has Dawson looking so bad now, it’s the way that Dawson was easily controlled by Pascal during the fight. Dawson was hurt repeatedly from big shots from Pascal, and came off looking really bad because of how timid he was against the Canadian based fighter. If you take away that one brief burst of punches from Dawson at the start of the 11th round, he looked more like a prospect than a former champion.

Pascal was the much better fighter in comparison. And Dawson has a rematch with him, which he’ll probably use some time next year. I think Dawson should forget about fighting Pascal again and focus on learning how to fight instead. The guy has a lot of bad habits to get rid of in the ring and I think it would be a huge mistake for Dawson to try and jump right back in there with Pascal in early 2011. Like trainer Emanuel Steward said when watching Dawson against Pascal, ‘he does the same thing over and over again.’ Steward is right. Dawson throws a one or two shots and then steps back and tries to move around to avoid getting hit.

He doesn’t go out looking to take his opponents out with a flurry of shots, even though he has the power and the speed to overwhelm a lot of his opponents with a sustained attack if he put his mind to it. If you look as Dawson’s fights against Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver, he would throw a few punches and then step back and either put his ear muffs and cover up or move around and try not to get hit. It wasn’t Floyd Mayweather Jr. we were watching. It was almost as if Dawson lacked the aggression needed to dominate two older foes in their 40s. Given that Dawson was the much younger and faster fighter, he should have been able to drill Johnson and Tarver to pieces with his physical tools.

He didn’t. Dawson held back as if he were handling a life grenade and ended up winning dull decisions in four fights. When Dawson finally had to face a fighter much younger and more active in 27-year-old Pascal, Dawson wasn’t ready for him. This is why I think Dawson learn how to fight and use the next year focusing on being more aggressive in a series of tune-up fights. I think Dawson should fight five or six times in the next year against B level fighters and once he’s proven that he knows how to be more aggressive, then he should try and seek out someone like Jean Pascal or Tavoris Cloud. Dawson may lose his chance at fighting Pascal again, but at least he’ll have a much better chance of beating him when he does face him again. Right now, I don’t think Dawson will be improved enough to beat Pascal in a rematch. I see him losing again by another decision.