Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson: Fools gold or The real jewellery?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyobrvO1UHE[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oyvEljXTQ&feature=relmfu[/ame]

 

How's it going, JK?

In the words of Manny Steward, it went down just as we expected, lol. I don't wanna be too harsh on Chad but he was never mentally strong enough to beat someone like Ward. We've been going on about his mental weakness constantly and to be fair to Chad he did show improvements in that department under Iceman Scully, but as we always say, you are who you are playa...Chad was taken to that place that Pascal took him to and he checked out again. Like i said though i don't wanna be too harsh on him because Ward was just better. Sometimes we over analyse but in this case the better man with the better tools and better IQ proved to be just too good and that's pretty much all there is to it.

Was the weight a factor? Possibly, but not too much of a factor IMO. Ward beats him 7 days a week and twice on sundays at whatever weight. There is the argument that maybe Chad takes Wards punches better at light heavy, but he still gets dominated. Chad has always had this problem of fighting to monotonous in his style and once he gets tagged he loses focus. Something happens to him once he gets hit and he starts making technical mistakes. When great fighters adjust and go into their tool chest, Chad just seems to go into his shell and runs out of ideas. The first Glen Johnson fight was when i realised Chad wasn't ganna be what i and others thought.

On to the fight. Dawson actually made a decent start in the first couple of rounds. The first was pretty even, slight edge to Ward. But i gave Dawson the second round. Ward upped the gears in the third and once Dawson got knocked down it was a beat down from there. Chad actually did try his best to win imo but what we're seeing from this kid Ward is something kinda different. He's truly special and it makes it even better that he's come around in this era where there's not many accomplished, well rounded fighters about. He displayed every little trick and facet in the sweet science pamphlet in this fight and put on a masterpiece. Some boxing fans don't even peep what this guy does so i hope he gets appreciated.

Ward finds what works for him and gets on it quickly. What he realised was he could hit Chad with a short left hook over the jab and he kept going to it. The biggest mistake Dawson was making was bending to his left and staying in that position for too long. It's fine to dip to your left to slip a punch but then you have to change the angle and slide the other away or pivot and turn, otherwise you're wanna be caught with the follow up even if you avoid the first punch. This is exactly what happned for the first KD and Dawson's mind and legs never recovered. Ward would catch his jab and then come over the top when Dawson leaned to his left. Dawson couldn't establish his jab, which was ganna be crucial because he HAD to control the distance to have any chance of winning.

Chad can get back to light heavy, he's still the best there. Maybe fight Cloud who i think he would beat pretty convincingly, or even better a rematch with Pascal. He gave up too many concessions in this fight, but i guess that's why. He can still keep his titles, blame the weight and make good money as there weren't that many options after he beat Hopkins. That's probabily what his brain-trust was thinking. He took such a dominating beating though so we'll see how that effects him going forward. He's not the most mentally strong as it is.

It's just a pleasure to watch Ward though. We saw three different styles in one fight. I saw a bit of Roy Jones mixed with a little Pete Whitaker and a lot of Bernard Hopkins, lol. That's how compete and special this guy is. Jabbing to the solar plexus, pivoting correctly, beast on the inside ripping Dawson with short uppercuts, sliding under punches, not showing you the same look twice, he even sat on the toilet ala Whitaker, lol!

The best way i can discribe what Ward does is to say what i thought when i first saw him and anointed him. I call his fight-game loose change.

Full dollar bills are more attractive that's why dynamic fighters get more looks. But we all love it when we come across loose change that you didn’t realise was there, it’s not as attractive as a full note, but comes in handy and gets the job done. Andre Ward does nothing extravagantly, he's not dynamic, super athletic or a KO artist, he doesn't carry many flashy notes. But he finds a lot of loose change in his pocket that adds up to real dollars.

As he works out his opponents. He lifts one cushion, and lo and behold, there is $11.58 in loose change back there! And wow, there are three more cushions he's still to lift up – hey, in the language of unproven reserves, he ends up having 70 or 80 bucks under each one! Wow, what a windfall!

So he might not be spectacular, he might seem like he doesn't do one thing brilliently, some people might find him 'boring' and his personality might be dry. But he's a winner and his fight-game is loose change. It all adds up.

 

I agree Earl. I think Ward/Direll would be an interesting fight. I can't see anyone right now out there beating Ward, but Dirrell has certain attributes which would make it interesting at least. I think it's ganna take a super athletic/unorthodox fighter to beat Ward. Dirrell isn't that guy but he has the athleticism and foot/hand speed to get off first on Ward which is something that is VERY hard to do for anyone facing Ward. Dirrell would have a HUGE problem with Ward on the inside though. Ward would handcuff him like he does everyone else but the first half of the fight would be intriguing if Dirrell was able to get off first, fight a disciplined fight and use his foot speed to get away.