By Duke Pahulu: After Chad Dawson beat Bernard Hopkins, he called out Super Middleweight Champion Andre Ward. While I like the fact that the best wants to fight the best, this matchup just smells like a wasteful Saturday night. Style-wise, both fighters are natural boxers who look better against aggressive punchers.

I already seen thirteen and a half rounds of that kind of fight involving Dawson against Hopkins. Both fighters should concentrate on their respective division and clean up. Dawson should fight the winner of Jean Pascal-Tavoris Cloud. In the meantime give Gabriel Campillo a shot since he was clearly robbed of a victory over Cloud. There’s also fights against titleholder Beibut Shumenov and undefeated contenders Nathan Cleverly and Zsolt Erdei.

Dawson has already cleared the old guard of the division and its time he take on the young guns. In the case of Andre Ward, he’s a bit overrated. He only has two quality wins against Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch. His victories over Froch and an already-exposed Arthur Abraham shouldn’t have been enough for him to win Fighter of 2011. I believe Brandon Rios had a better year with two exciting knockouts of top 5 lightweights Miguel Acosta and Urbano Antillon and another KO of top 20 lightweight John Murray.

That said, there is no denying that Ward has the skills to be a mainstay at 168 for a long time and there is still Lucian Bute in his way for complete supremacy at super middleweight. Ward should just concede to the fact that the fight will make more money in Canada than Oakland. There is still unfinished business with one Andre Dirrell. I know they are “friends” but they should have got it on the super six but Dirrell’s temporary head injury nixed the fight.

Titleholder Robert Stieglitz should be a good scrap while Bute and Froch have their two fight date. Ward still needs to prove himself and there is still work to be done at super middle. My ultimate point is that the top guy in one division should clear the division out before moving up. One quick way to become a star is fighting someone who brings out the best of you. A boxer has no upside in fighting another boxer in a snoozefest. Matchmaking is key for making a superstar.