By Kevin Pasquale: After Andre Ward cleaned out all comers in Showtime’s “Super 6” Super Middleweight tournament, including the likes of Kessler, Abraham, AND Froch, all in convincing fashion, it was clear that Ward had staked his claim as the king of the 168-pound division, and at the same time, worked his way into the likes of the pound-for-pound pantheon of kingpins, sharing company with the likes of Mayweather, Pacquiao, Martinez, and others.

At around the same time, Chad Dawson had staked his claim as the clear light heavyweight champ, after easily outpointing the crafty Bernard Hopkins in their (2nd) matchup in April 2012, following his other convincing victories over strong light-heavies such as Tarver, Johnson, And Adamek.

It was after the Hopkins win that Dawson proceeded to call out Ward, and challenge him to a matchup at 168 pounds, adding the incentive of fighting in Ward’s backyard in Oakland, California. Boxing experts and fans raised their collective eyebrows, and found the potential matchup as intriguing, fascinating, and good for boxing.

Once the fight was made official, with Dawson proclaiming that he “felt great” fighting at 168 pounds, the speculation and opinions started flying. Most “experts” found the fight as potentially exciting, definitely a quality matchup, but more of the boxing community saw this as a tactical, defensive, and possibly even “boring” fight, with the 2 fighters squaring off in the ring sharing many commonalities: a high boxing-IQ, a matched philosophy of fighting smart: aka, defensively, selectively, and doing enough to secure an unspectacular, but convincing 12-round victory.

As we all know now in retrospect, WOW, were we all wrong.

Andre Ward, who had just previously battled his way to a tough, hard-fought (but decisive) victory over the arrogant and talented Carl Froch at 168 pounds to win the Super 6 tournament, made the highly touted light-heavyweight champ Chad Dawson look like a sparring partner, and an unworthy one at that.

Across (almost) ten rounds, Dawson was limited to a listless facsimile of himself, pacing around the ring ever so hesitantly, landing seven, count them: seven total jabs, and 29 TOTAL punches in the fight. This was largely due to his hesitance as a result of Ward’s relentless offensive onslaught, and Dawson’s hitting the canvas three times: the first knockdown coming from the quick, sharp, short left hook from Ward at the end of the 3rd round which began Dawson’s inevitable decline, which was then followed by a vicious round-house left hook by Ward to start the fourth, sending Dawson back down to the canvas. He did well to survive these knockdowns, and cautiously navigate his way to the deeper rounds.

It can be argued that Dawson has never seen speed like Ward’s in the ring as a professional, which is entirely valid. The previous fighter that gave Dawson problems was Jean Pascal, to whom Dawson also lost, and that loss was largely due to Pascal’s fast hand-speed. But that fight was very tightly contested, unlike this mismatch.

After Ward continued to dominate the middle rounds, punctuated by 3 brutally effective uppercuts to Dawson’s jaw (in the 8th round, when Dawson had Ward pinned to the ropes. With both fighters tied up, and Dawson pressing, SMOTHERING Ward into the ropes, Ward freed up his hands just enough to deliver the beautiful uppercuts, snapping Dawson’s head to the left, spewing blood from his mouth. This was a preview to Dawson’s ultimate demise.)

Going into the 10th, it was clear that Dawson’s strategy was simply to survive the fight. The light heavyweight champ, who coming into the fight was universally recognized as the best in his weight class in the world, was a mere shell of himself. His corner kept imploring him to attack Ward, knowing he needed a knockout, but Dawson knew better than to open himself up to further damage by opening himself up by going on the offensive.

As the 10th began, it appeared that Dawson had found a strategy that allowed him to throw the occasional punch, while tying Ward up, without suffering too many clean power punches to his chin, as in the earlier rounds. Then it all went downhill, and in a hurry. After eating a furious four punch combination in the center of the ring from Ward just over a minute into the 10th, Dawson’s legs betrayed him, and his ankles buckled. He weakly backed up a bit, trying to maintain a façade of nonchalance. Seeing the blood in the water, Ward pounced, delivering another precise, vicious combo that culminated with 2 blows to Dawson’s neck and ear as he withered to the canvas on one knee.

Referee Steve Smoger ran over to Dawson as he stood back up, and wobbled backward toward the ropes. As Smoger counted, staring intently into Dawson’s eyes, Dawson shook his head, muttering indecipherably to him. Smoger drew in close to Dawson, still counting, and asked Dawson if he wanted to continue. Dawson shook his head, and repeated twice, “I’m done”. Thus came the end.

There is a common saying that goes “Be careful what you wish for”, and that applied to “Bad” Chad Dawson, who openly challenged Andre Ward to fight not only in his hometown, but at Ward’s strong comfortable weight of 168. Dawson can be commended for challenging a man recognized as one of the best fighters on the planet, but his performance once the fight came to fruition was tragically inept.

Andre Ward is the perfect ambassador for the professional fight game: a likeable man with impeccable manners, always saying the right thing, and carrying himself as all boxers should. And now, he is now arguably the 2nd best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and at 28 years old, in his prime.

Chad Dawson, however, at 30 years old, is now at a very critical juncture in his once near-impeccable career. He stated to Larry Merchant after the fight that he would immediately return to 175 pounds and “continue his reign” there, but, what weight (no pun intended) does that carry after the beat-down he suffered at the hands of Ward?

Miguel Cotto has proven that a great champion, if he has the heart and fortitude to do so, can return to glorious heights after suffering seemingly career-ending, humiliating defeats. Paul Williams, before his sad, life-altering motorcycle accident, was unable to convincingly recover from his embarrassing knockout defeat at the hands of Sergio Martinez in his pursuant ring appearances. Now, it remains to be seen what will become of Chad Dawson.

Only time will tell.