Dehydration can ruin a fighter especially a fighters chin. Something with fluid around the brain. Supposedly he was getting dropped a lot in sparring for the Ward fight and then what Stevenson did it was sad.
Kovalev can fight Dawson and the whole Dawson's Creek cast simultaneously and the outcome won't change.
Dawson is done, so it's a pointless fight at the moment. If you can't even beat guys like Karpency anymore, you know you're finished as a topfighter.
Also his skills eroded from switching trainers too much. This was first evident when he fired Floyd Sr and hired Eddie Muhammad. He looked better under Steward but for some reason Chad fired him too. He rehired EM and he looks significantly worse than before. Now he is just done.
The Dawson that fought Adamek would have boxed Koavlev's ears off. The sad part? That is when Dawson peaked in 2007.
I think prime dawson gets a little underrated, but even at his best i think kovalev is a bad matchup for him. I think dawson gets stopped late in a fight hes ahead in.
Dawson is a mental midget. ANy version of dawson would have crumbled from kovalev's onslaught. He just wasn't tested back then,
I came in to say this, word for word. Kovalev has faced southpaws before in Campillo, Agnew, and Caparello. I'm a huge fan so naturally I feel Dawson gets mad underrated in his prime but still I see Kovalev having success on him. Dawson not active enough or enough power on offense to make me feel good about the matchup and he can be too upright/stiff/easy-to-find on defense, along with defensive lack of focus, for a guy like Kovalev. I wouldn't be too stunned if Dawson could make the distance, though. I don't think it's a certain knockout. Dawson of today? Dawson gets stopped, probably quick, and might win a couple if they fought 100 theoretical times. While I think all of his defeats are overplayed, he is just completely ruined compared to what he once was. Give me Kovalev vs. Adonis, please! And then give me Dawson vs. somebody in the top 15 by mid-summer. Time for him to get back to it or call it an end.
Chad has underrated power, although he is mentally weak and has a poor attitude, when he was under a trainer that disciplined him (Floyd Sr and E.Steward) he looked good. His prime was in 2007 when he was still under Floyd Sr, after he fired him and hired EM it was all down hill from there. It's not that Chad needed Floyd Sr, it's just that he was switching trainers too much and Floyd Sr was the last trainer who knew how to get the best out of him.