Can Steward turn Chad Dawson’s career around?

By Boxing News - 01/05/2011 - Comments

Image: Can Steward turn Chad Dawson's career around?By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KO’s) was thought to be the best fighter in the light heavyweight division until last August when he was dominated and beaten by WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal by an 11th round technical decision. It was a fight in which Dawson looked timid and fearful of letting his hands go. At the same time, he looked to be holding back, thinking too much and seemingly concerned about running out of gas if he were to fight hard.

By the time Dawson finally started to let his hands go in the 11th, it was too late for him to win by a decision and he needed a knockout. To his credit, Dawson had Pascal out on his feet and ready to go but then a clash of heads occurred and the fight was quickly halted by the referee. Dawson’s problems with not throwing enough punches had been an ongoing problem since his first fight with Glen Johnson in 2008.

Dawson dominated Johnson when he would throw punches, but then Dawson would stop punching and go rounds where he wouldn’t throw hardly anything. This problem eventually led to his defeat by Pascal. Dawson now has a new trainer in Emanuel Steward, who he hopes can turn his career around. This is going to take a lot of work by Steward to do that because he’s going to have to turn Dawson into a fighter instead of a thinker, and it’s unclear whether Dawson has the killer instinct inside of him needed for him to beat the very best fighters in the sport.

Dawson didn’t need to be a fighter to beat older fighters like Johnson and Antonio Tarver, because he could beat them on talent and youth alone. But to beat guys like Bernard Hopkins and Pascal, Dawson has to change his game somehow and find a lot more aggression if he’s to succeed from this point on.



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