By Jason Kim: Gary Shaw, the promoter for Chad Dawson, reportedly wants a different judge and referee for the rematch between Dawson and World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal. This after Dawson lost to Pascal by an 11 round technical decision last Saturday night in Montreal, Canada.
Judge Jack Woodburn, a Canadian, scored the fight 108-101 for Pascal, which differed from the much closer scores of 106-103 from the two non-Canadian judges for the fight. Additionally, Shaw wasn’t pleased with referee Michael Griffin either, saying in an article at Supersport.com, “The head butt [the one in the 11th that resulted in Dawson suffering a deep cut over his right eye] was intentional in my estimation. The ref should have let Chad fight the last two rounds. He had Pascal in trouble.”
Shaw feels that the fight should have been allowed to continue in the 11th, given that Dawson had Pascal hurt and looking like he was ready to be stopped. Shaw does have a point. The timing of the stoppage clearly helped Pascal, who looked like he might not have been able to make it out of the round. Pascal says he was just letting Dawson throw his shots and biding his time, but it didn’t look like that.
Pascal looked hurt and vulnerable. Its unclear how much pull Shaw will have in a rematch between Pascal and Dawson, because Pascal is the WBC champion and that will obviously give him and his promoter the more power in deciding the venue, the judges and the referee for the rematch. Dawson will clearly have to fight Pascal in Canada, but Shaw may be able to get Griffin and Woodburn replaced if he complains long enough.
Pascal said “I know for sure I’m not a dirty fighter and it wasn’t an intentional head butt. Why would I need to do that? I was leading the fight.” What Pascal says makes sense. However, in looking at it from Shaw and Dawson’s perspective, Pascal was hurt and taking punishment when the head butt occurred.
The timing of the head butt would make a lot of people suspicious because it came in a round where Pascal looked like he might have been ready to be taken out. Dawson was throwing mean looking punches and fighting ferociously for the first time in the fight.
Pascal didn’t look good and appeared to have been hurt badly by a big left uppercut from Dawson. And moments later, the head butt occurred. Of course, this is something that would make Shaw and Dawson suspicious. It’s only natural.
Dawson said “There were four or five head butts and the ref didn’t do anything. But we have a rematch clause and I will be back and I will bring the title back to the States.”
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