How good was Chad Dawson?

Bad

 

It does not matter whether Ward stopped them or not what matters is that he beat them all and he did it conclusively. I am not against Bad Chad Dawson who like I said at a point in time was the best light heavyweight in the world. Ward is a very tough guy to beat like peak Ali, Mayweather, our very own Super Joe Calzaghe. Dawson mistake was signing the contract and at 168 well the rest is history. He could have waited because Dre would move up eventually. Remember the saying “Watch what you ask for because you just might get it”. He sure got it against Dre.

 

It was a stupid decision especially as Dre never asked for it but Dawson only has himself to blame quite frankly.

 

There was a reason folks called him Glass Jawson when he was active. He was a decent fighter, but he just didn't have the mandible to hang with the big boys!

 

Chad Dawson was an excellent boxer and rightfully a top 10 p4p caliber fighter in his prime, I closely followed his career since he won the WBC 175 pound title against Tomasz Adamek at Showtime Championship boxing in 2007 when both were undefeated. Adamek would then go on to have an excellent career at Cruiserweight and even manage a couple ranked wins at HW.

Those saying he wasn't great, had a glass jaw or under achieved don't know what they're talking about, he had 2 separate reigns as the number 1 LHW in the world. His fight vs Jean Pascal he was on his way towards a TKO when the fight was stopped on a accidental headbutt and Dawson was heavily favored in a rematch but Pascal would lose to Hopkins twice. Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe absolutely refused to fight him in the mid to late 00's and for good reason. When Hopkins finally decided to man up to Chad It was the clearest loss of Hopkins career since Roy Jones Jr back in 1993. Dawson had excellent wins over...
Tomasz Adamek Undefeated WBC Champion ranked in the top 5 at LHW
Glen Johnson twice while still ranked in the 3 10 at LHW
Antonio Tarver Twice while Tarver was ranked top 3 at LHW and had the IBF Belt
Bernard Hopkins number 1 at LHW, reigning WBC Champion.

Dawson in his prime years from 2006 through 2012 was never visibly hurt. I remember his fight vs Adrian Diaconu a top 5 ranked LHW where he ate some absolute bombs throughout the fight and it didn't appear to bother him at all. It was that weight cut against his fight vs Andre Ward that finished his career. He had just beaten Hopkins at 175 and decided to fight Andre Ward 4 months later at 168 which has the be the dumbest decision ever for a professional boxer and lineal champion. He was so weight drained that it was rumored a shot Edison Miranda knocked him out during training camp and he had to go into the Ward fight weight drained with a severe concussion. That Stevenson KO a couple months later was the icing on the cake, he was absolutely finished as a top boxer by that point.

 

Does he beat Bivol? How about Benavidez? Could he sweat down and fight Canelo for that Raza money?

 

I think he beats all 4 quite comfortably, with Beterbiev being the hardest fight but I feel like Dawson had enough speed, reach, footwork and ring generalship to outbox him towards a comfortable decision.

Bivol I don't see how he would beat a prime Chad Dawson. Dawson had almost a 77 inch reach compared to Bivols 72 inch reach. Bivols best punch is the jab, he has to set everything up with the jab and Dawson had a faster and longer jab to negate that. Bivol's power is also almost non existent, although Dawson isn't a power puncher himself he'd be bringing more fire power compared to Bivol.

 

Dawson was number 1 lhw for some time but the drop to smw to fight Ward and the emergence of Kovalev and Stevenson ended his reign at the top.

 

Dawson was a glass jawed fighter who had a short spurt of noticeable wins. Bivol, Benavidez and Canelo all beat him easily. He’s not on their class.

 

Solid post overall, I read it with interest, but while I agree that Chad was a top 10 P4P caliber fighter - there's some distance from that to being great and I don't think that You can't simultanously say that He underachieved.
After He cleaned out the "old guard" and signed with HBO, He had a chance of becoming the new face of American boxing - but He lost to Pascal and only really won one major fight against 47 years old Hopkins after that.
Saying that He was on his way to stopping Pascal is also quite optimistic. Dawson was not a finisher and Pascal knew how to survive the crisis. By all likelyhood He'd hold on to his lead.

Chad was also certainly was hurt in first Glen Johnson fight, at the end of round 3 - and Adamek got him good with right hand as well. "Glass Jaw" label gets thrown around very easily on fighters in general, but I think it's fair to say Dawson's durability was slightly lacking for an elite fighter.

Overall, I think He ranks below both the best Light Heavyweights in the era before him - in Tarver and Johnson - as well as the best light heavyweight in the next era, in Sergey Kovalev. Bivol and Beterbiev are most likely going to surpass him also.
Considering his talent, I think calling him an underachiever is fair. He's unlikely to get into HoF after all and He certainly had ability for that.

 

Unappreciated in my own time.