Ward: Team Dawson doesn’t think much of me, but I’m going to change all that on September 8th

By Boxing News - 08/24/2012 - Comments

By Sean McDaniel: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) says he feels kind of like an underdog going into his September 8th fight against Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) on HBO at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

Ward said to RingTV “I do know that [Team Dawson] doesn’t think much of me. But I have an opportunity to change that come September 8th.”

Ward thinks that Dawson and his team are making a big mistake by not seeing something special in him, because he’s going to be out to show that he’s got what it takes to win on September 8th.

It’s easy to understand why Dawson might be less than impressed with the things that Ward has accomplished, because he does a lot of things that seem pretty basic in terms of throwing lead right hands or jabs and then crashing forward to start a prolonged period of in fighting. Ward, 28, tends to force his opponents to stay on the inside by wrestling with them, muscling them by pressing his shoulders against them and pushing. It takes a special fighter with good footwork and strength to be able to work their way out but it’s clearly not easy to do.

We saw Ward get the better of Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green using this same strategy to the letter. The one fight where Ward had problems was against Sakio Bika when Ward tried to fight him inside and ended up taking a lot of punishment due to Bika’s strength and excellent inside boxing skills.

Ward finally had to abandon his efforts at trying to fight Bika in close and instead box him. However, Bika continued to give Ward problems for the remainder of the fight by pressuring him and making him fight in close. It was strange because instead of Ward wanting to take it to the inside, it was Bika and he really punished Ward in that fight.

Dawson isn’t the type of fighter that will try and fight Ward in close. He’s too tall and he’s not suited to that type of fighting. But he’s also someone that you can’t easily force to fight in close because he has great footwork and strength to shove his way out of an inside fight. He’s not someone that Ward can mug against the ropes, because Dawson is the bigger and stronger fighter.

Ward is going to have to come up with some other ideas if he wants to beat Dawson besides just trying the same thing that he’s done over and over again in the Super Six tournament recently. Dawson and his team have studied what Ward does and they’ll no doubt be ready to nullify it if Ward tries to fight exclusively that way on September 8th.



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