Chad had a 5 inch reach advantage, but the announcers kept saying how Ward neutralized his jab. Could someone technically explain what allowed Ward to do this? What did Ward implement early on as part of his strategy? I noticed throwing a lot of straight rights to the body, following up with the hook up top.
More like Dawson neutralized it himself by not throwing it from the start at some points in the fight it looked like Dawson was there admiring the work he wasnt doing and just sleep walking through the fight.
Dawson never doubled the ****ing jab. His right hand was the key to him winning that fight. He needed to feint the left, double up with the right jab and then hook off of it, pivoting out on his back foot. But no, melon head plods forward and throws one at a time, lazily too. If I was Scully I'd of slapped him. Ward established his own jab by stepping in close with it, dipping a shoulder slightly as he did so. Dawson has never been overly great with lateral movement. Straight up fighters like an Adamek or a Tarver he can handle, but throw a little top movement in there and Bad Chad is a lost puppy.
From the very first round, Ward was knocking Dawson's jab forcefully down, often even before Chad even threw it. Then, he started circling leftwards to get his lead foot on the outside laterally, like conventional wisdom says you should against a southpaw to neutralize their punching angle while opening yours up. From there, Ward added more and more offensive layers to his ambush assaults (left hooks, body shots, leaping into straight rights), and Dawson seemed confused, unprepared to open up offensive opportunities any other way, and purely on the defensive. By the mid-late rounds, Ward was able to hop in and out of range, landing his jab while pulling back from Dawson's whenever he tried to throw it. It almost looked like Ward was longer, the way he established control of range. Jab completely neutralized.
:deal He was using it "some in the first two rounds until Chad had some minor success with his left hook. Then Andre hooked with him (bringing on the 1st KD) and the punching for Chad was over. For those on here saying Chad just doesn't have a jab......tell that to Bernard Hopkins. Nobody is gonna beat even the old Bernard without an excellent jab.
It is, it's just not used that much to his own fault. Would love people to show gifs and break it down that way but at the meantime I'll just enjoy Bogo, pipe wrenched, & SJS posts on this thread so far.
Like Bogo said, Ward's use of the left hand from the get go was to feint his own jab/parrying/knocking Dawson's jab. Dawson quickly became reluctant to throw it. Ward showed great timing and speed in first blocking/parrying Dawson's jab, then immediately returning with his own jab. Great to watch.
Exactly what i was thinking. A lot of things Dawson could have done with his size and leverage. Ward schooled em'