By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (33-4, 18 KOs) will be fighting this Saturday night in a risky 10 round fight against the hard hitting Cornelius White (23-4, 17 KOs) in a 10 round un-televised bout at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. This has to be seen as a true 50-50 fight because both fighters are badly flawed. As poor as Dawson has looked lately, you would have to pick White as the favorite to win this fight because he’s got the power to stop Dawson early.
The Dawson-White fight will be on the undercard of the Gary Russell Jr. vs. Patrick Hyland fight card, which will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing. Toe show you how card Dawson has fallen as a fighter from his championship days, he’s now lost 3 out of his last five fights in defeats to Tommy Karpency, Andre Ward and Adonis Stevenson.
Dawson’s 10 round split decision loss to Karpency last October was a real crushing blow to his career because it a defeat against a fringe contender and not to a world champion caliber fighter. Dawson was staggered at one point in the fight, and he looked really bad.
Dawson is coming off a win over little known Shujaa El Amin last December.
White has lost three out of his last five fights as well in defeats against Thomas Williams Jr, Marcus Browne, and Sergey Kovalev. Those are quality fighters, and you can’t blame White in losing to any of them because they’re some of the best in the 175lb division right now.
White has stopped his career hemorrhaging lately with two solid wins over Marcus Oliveira and William Johnson. White’s win over Oliveira was a really good victory because he’s a fighter that has been highly ranked in the past, and fought for a world title not long ago against Jurgen Braehmer in losing a 12 round unanimous decision in 2013. White was beaten by Donovan George by a 1st round knockout five years ago in 2011.
If Dawson loses to White on Saturday night, then he might want to consider retiring from the sport. White isn’t a major player, and there’s no reason why Dawson should lose to a fighter of that caliber unless he no longer has it, which would seem to be the case.
Artur Beterbiev to fight on June 4
Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) will be making his first appearance since shoulder surgery when he fights on June 4 against an opponent still to be determined on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the Bell Center in Montreal, Canada. Beterbiev, 31, was poised to fight in an IBF eliminator bout, but the shoulder injury whipped out the fight.
Beterbiev really doesn’t need to be fighting in eliminator bouts for him to get world title shots. IBF champion Sergey Kovalev would likely be very interested in facing Beterbiev if he’s interested in the fight because it’s one of the better fights for Kovalev in the division. Beterbiev twice beat Kovalev in the amateur ranks when the two of them were Russian amateurs. It would appear that Beterbiev has Kovalev’s number, at least he did when the two of them were amateurs.
Beterbiev has been out of action since June of 2015, when he stopped Alexander Johnson in the 7th round. It’s unfortunate that Beterbiev has lost an entire year of his pro career due to his shoulder injury. By the time Beterbiev fights on June 4, he’ll have been out of the ring for an entire year.
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