By Dave Lahr: World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KO’s) may have defeated Chad Dawson (27-1, 17 KO’s) by an 11 round technical decision tonight, but Pascal looked like he really dodged a bullet when Dawson was cut in the 11th just when he had Pascal hurt and taking punishment. All I can say is that head butt may be scored as accident, but sure was a timely one for Pascal because he looked like he might not have made it out of the fight. I’ll give Pascal credit for winning the fight based on his more effective aggression, but that isn’t saying much because Dawson looked like a timid rabbit until the 11th when he suddenly woke up and began to rain shots down on a startled looking Pascal.
It was like Dawson was another personal altogether, and Pascal looked not ready for the kind of firepower that Dawson was dishing out. Thank god for the head butt, eh? Without that head butt, I think Pascal would have been counting stars and moping about his loss WBC title, wondering what happened. At any rate, Pascal won by the scores of 108-101, 106-103 and 106-103. He did enough to get the win, and now he can go and fight Lucian Bute and get his head taken off at the shoulders. Since Dawson has a rematch clause in the contract, Dawson can fight Pascal after he gets beaten by Bute, although I don’t see the point of that once Pascal no longer has the WBC title. if Pascal takes the interim fight against Bute, he’ll lose.
As such, I really don’t see Dawson fighting Pascal again or at least anytime soon. Dawson will now move ahead and likely fight IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud. I don’t know who to pick in that fight. I suppose Cloud if Dawson shows the same kind of fear of mixing it up that he showed tonight against Pascal. I think Dawson has the talent to beat Cloud, but unless he mans up and lets his hands go, he’ll fall way behind in the fight against Cloud and lose by a lopsided decision.
Overall, I wasn’t impressed with either Dawson or Pascal. They both looked horrible. I can see virtually all of the top super middleweights beating these guys back to back. Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Bute, Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham would probably trounce both of these guys. I guess they should be happy that those fighters don’t compete in the light heavyweight division.
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