Dawson was smart NOT to fight Diaconu!

The way the game is played and how it turned out, it wasn't the much better move for Dawson at all. Because he had no leverage without a title, he wound up spending about a year of his career with a fighter he was clearly better than. Tarver's a good win, but brought minimal new fans for Dawson because most people wrote Tarver off after Hopkins dismantled him. So, Chad wins in clear fashion, and what does he have to show for it?

2 titles? Umm.....
Huge fanbase? Umm....
Hopkins or Calzaghe fight? Umm....

So, where exactly did he win? Taking a fight like Diaconu before Tarver and-gasp, here's a crazy thought- Gary Shaw showing enough faith in Dawson to win the purse bid, even if it led to a small loss on the event so he could stage the fight in North America would've solved all of that. Their management of Chad's been horribly short sighted, and the tactical mistakes cost them a chance at Hopkins and Calzaghe because Chad's not even close to being worth the risk. Luckily he can make a ton of noise at 168 if he drops down there provided Shaw gets the fights made for him and matches him a little smarter than he's been doing with Andre Dirrell lately at the same class.

Tavoris Cloud, I don't blame Dawson for not fighting. Tavoris is either terribly managed himself, or his team's had a stroke of genius because he's made himself into such an unattractive option that he'll now be getting a significantly easier title shot against Clinton Woods.

 

You talk a good bit about the minimal recognition Dawson gained from fighting a washed up Tarver, but you failed to say anything about how fighting Diaconu would've looked better. Fact is it wouldn't have looked better.

If he beat Diaconu, everyone would've simply wrote Diaconu off as a typical Eurobum. Dawson made the right choice.

Dawson couldn't have fought ANYONE to earn fights with BHop and Calzaghe.. you can't blame Dawson here.. gotta blame the horrible competition at 175. There is absolutely nobody Dawson could've fought that would've got Calzaghe's attention. BHop knows what's up. He doesn't want none of the young lion. Dawson ain't no one-dimensional Pavlik!

 

Pascal is the Andre Berto of the super Middle/Light Heavy's

hes Haitian born as well...hes a fighter who good enough to beat the 2nd tier top guys

like Kessler, Bute, Branco,Johnson etc...but wont beat Froch/Dawson (the kingpins)

excellent fighter. I reckon he should invite the robotic dane to Canada and drown the fraud.

 

what a joke.

i especially like the part 'Dawson cherry-picked weight drained fighters like Adamek'

atsch

 

Dawson is never going to be a draw no matter who he beats. But by beating Tarver he put a much bigger name on his resume, had Showtime on board, and made a bigger payday. That seems to be worth fighting Tarver instead of Diaconu. Then you have to ask does HBO give him 2 fights with HBO money if he would have fought Diaconu instead, which I don't think HBO would have. So Dawson might not be a star right now he still made the right move by fighting one of the biggest names and best fighters in the division in Tarver over the largely unknown and not as highly rated Diaconu. He might not get a Hopkins or Calzaghe fight but does beating Diaconu instead of Tarver get him any closer? No way.

 

That no.

 

I did say how facing Diaconu would've looked better- he'd have had more negotiating leverage and freedom for having faced Diaconu first before Tarver. Instead, the next 7 months were spent preparing for a rematch nobody wanted to see in the first place. That's a mistake, and a big reason it turned out that way is because Shaw was pinching pennies and let the Romanian promoter win the purse bid- he had no intention of seriously pursuing that fight for Dawson. That was a long-term mistake. The first Dawson-Tarver fight sold something like 200-400 tickets.

You're complaining about what "everyone" would say if Dawson would win- well, Diaconu lost last night, and what "everyone" is doing is giving Jean Pascal a ton of credit for winning because Diaconu was a game fighter. Not a spectacular one, but entertaining enough. Jean Pascal's now gained a number of new fans. It wouldn't matter that Dawson's a level better, because he's a level better than anything left at 175 right now- he just needs more fans, and the Canadian fans are quite willing to root for US fighters if they put on a good show for them- like Librado Andrade.

 

That's the key Bogart- he never had to choose. He could've had his cake and eaten it too, because there was nowhere left for Tarver to turn either. He could've fought Diaconu first, retained his title, and put the first L on Adrian's resume, then he'd have a bargaining chip with Tarver and would be a unified champion right now. That's what I mean when I say short-sighted management has hurt his career.

It wasn't an either/or scenario.

 

Nobody is advocating that Dawson should have fought Diaconu instead of Tarver though. We're saying that fighting Diaconu and then Tarver would have left Dawson in a better position than fighting Tarver twice.

 

Exactly. I'm going to leave it at that until we see what he and his team does after the Johnson rematch, no sense continuing to beat a dead horse.:thumbsup

 

The fight with dawson could either have been a one sided schooling or a mirror of the glen johnson fight if the fight went into the later rds ..But not sure if Diaconu could have taken to many clean shots from bad chad !

 

^^^ my bad

 

Dawson fans are already getting Floyditis.

"Ya see! Chad woulda whooped his ass!!!"

Now every light heavy that Dawson never faces, that loses, will be written off by them the same way all the top welters are written off by Floyd fans because they fight each other and lose but Floyd never fights them.