Would like to hear the posters on the Classic Forums their thoughts on "Bad" Chad Dawson. How highly did you guys view Chad Dawson when he was LHW champ? He was highly regarded back then when he picked up wins over Eric Harding, Glen Johnson, Tomasz Adamek, Antonio Tarver. Had a career setback when he lost to Jean Pascal but seemed to have a very brief comeback when he beat Bernard Hopkins. It all came crashing down when he decided to drain himself to SMW to face Andre Ward and getting stopped, and then getting stopped again right after when he fought Adonis Stevenson. He was never the same fighter since and is, sadly, still continuing to fight. At the time during Dawson's peak Floyd Mayweather Jr called Dawson "the best pure boxer in the sport (outside of myself) ". In his prime I thought Chad looked brilliant at times and had great talent. Had a nice style to watch, good boxing skills, and threw nice combinations when he decided to let his hands go. However, he was also a frustrating fighter to watch whenever he fought so uninspired and lazy in fights. Bad chin, rarely let his hands go, froze in fights, and did not have the mental toughness nor ring smarts to go beyond just a talented fighter. Sad to see how quickly a fighter like Dawson fell off the rails.
The weight drain effectively ended his career. I'm not really knowledgeable on him. What was he thinking?
Very good boxer and imo when at his best he was top dog. However saying that his best did not last long and the first round loss to Stevenson did not help at all.
I like him, one of my favourite LHWs since 2000. With Tarver and Beterbeiv. He's probably a top 30 LHW and was a very skilled fighter. He just had Mandible issues.
Chin failed him. And on a promoter tip..some dude named Prince something?!.... screwed him. I had high expectations, just knew my photos with him & a glove with his autograph would be worthy something. His Adamak fight was a one time masterpiece, never to be duplicated. Didn't pan out that way.