By Eric Thomas: WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) feels that he’s going to be rolling back the years this Saturday night in his fight against Adonis Stevenson (20-1, 17 KO’s) at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.
Dawson thinks he can fight at the level that he did back in 2007 when he dominated a young Tomasz Adamek in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision. Dawson hasn’t looked like the same fighter that year, as he doesn’t throw as many punches and he’s a lot more conservative with his fighting style.
Dawson said to RingTV “You’re going to see the Chad Dawson that beat Tomasz Adamek and Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver.”
I think the Dawson that beat Tarver and Johnson would lose to Stevenson because Dawson didn’t look good in any of the fights with Johnson and Tarver. He beat them both twice each, but was hardly impressive in laboring to 12 round decisions in those fights.
Dawson may not look as bad as he did in his last fight in September last year when he made the mistake of draining down to 168 to fight WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward. Dawson likely won’t look that bad, but he could have problems if he can’t keep out of the way of Stevenson’s big shots.
The good news is that Stevenson isn’t as good as Andre Ward, and not even close to him in ability. The bad news is it might not matter with Dawson looking like a past his best fighter. If Dawson fights like he did against Ward last year, then it’s difficult to imagine seeing him make it the full 12 rounds against the hard hitting and quick Stevenson.
The fight is taking place in Montreal, and that means that Stevenson will be the home fighter with the Canadian boxing fans backing him rather than Dawson. This in turn will motivate Stevenson to look for a knockout and he might be able to get it if Dawson fights as sorry as he did last September.
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