Dawson to fight Pascal, then Bute?

I'd like to see Erdei offed as well, but I can't imagine HBO would be excited for that fight. Most fans don't know or don't care about a mythical belt.

Cloud is now with Don King, which probably means he's ruined from this point forward. He is one of the worst-managed fighters around. We'd probably be having Dawson/Could very soon (maybe even already) had Cloud's people not abandoned all common sense.

 

I'm glad you mentioned this, because people on this site used to work themselves into a frenzy accusing Dawson of being a ducker.

But consider this:

1) With Pascal, Dawson will have fought five consecutive top-five opponents. How many active fighters can say they've done the same, and especially against guys in their own division?

2) Dawson also has called out another top-five opponent, Hopkins, who shows no interest in fighting him.

3) Dawson agreed to meet the other top-five opponent, Cloud, in a four-fighter (unofficial) tournament backed by HBO. All Cloud had to do was agree to fight on the undercard of Dawson/Johnson II on HBO, win his own bout, then face the winner in a WCB headliner. But he said no for some bizarre reason.

4) He called out the best PfP fighter in his weight range, Calzaghe, but he (understandably) retired.

5) His people made overtures to the best 168er at the time, Kessler, but Kessler's promoter rejected the interest without even entering into negotiations.

He gets criticized because he's been in against old guys, but that's who resides in the top five. If he beats Pascal, then either Bute or Cloud would make for yet another very strong opponent.

At any rate, for a fighter in his 20s, five wins already against Tarver, Johnson and Adamek makes for a great resume in progress.

 

Interesting thought about how this relates to Pavlik/Williams. I don't think there's any question that KP, PW and CD are tops on the HBO hitlist for fights appearing on the regular airways.

HBO was committing a lot of money to make KP/PW, and they're even willing to air both of the "tuneups" in the fights involving Martinez (obviously a tough opponent) and Cintron.

The network's most egregious overpay for a bout the past couple years had to be Dawson/Tarver II, but that was Chad's first fight on the network and I think they viewed it as critical to pay extra to wrest Dawson -- and in a greater challenge, Gary Shaw -- from Showtime.

Long-term, I think Pavlik will be included in that mix provided he remains unscathed, and then you have three HBO-bred fighters (also including Bute) in major bouts at 168-175.

And then if Abraham or whoever emerges from the tournament, that person might actually be enough of a star to warrant a big PPV, given that today's PPV stars are winding down.

Maybe Amir Khan will become another major investment project, but there has to be some skepticism about him given the way the network failed to get great returns from Calzaghe or Kessler.

 

:huh

 

Good catch! That situation sure did create a stink around here at the time.