Firstly, I'd definitely fight my mandatory. If I'm not prepared to fight my mandatory, I'd not hug the belt [hold it hostage] and lie saying that I'll fight my mandatory next time and then next time, only to end up never fighting him, like Dawson did. If I decided I didn't want to fight my mandatory, I'd drop the belt immediately, and let my mandatory fight for the title. That's not what Dawson did, unfortunately. He held the belt hostage, keeping Diaconu waiting and even tried to have his mandatory challenger status revoked INDEFINITELY! Secondly, respect for cleaning up the division? How? By ducking my mandatory challenger who is a threat and who could expose my biggest weakness and targeting a faded fighter with a big name who is no threat to me instead? It looks like that five minutes I spent typing a thorough post was lost on you, chuffy. He didn't fight Tarver INSTEAD of Diaconu. He had the option of fighting BOTH, one after the other, Diaconu and then Tarver, but chose to duck Diaconu because he presented an unacceptably high risk. If he lost to Diaconu, "bye bye" a fight against Tarver. What they thought they were gaining was a big resume win over a fighter [Tarver] who was going to be retired by the first decent fighter he would have faced, whilst not incurring the risk of getting KOed by an unknown puncher. On the back of a very hyped fight, that most casual fans didn't care about, Dawson was declared the p4p No.1! That's what they were hoping to gain. The p4p No. 1 fighter isn't chinny and certainly wouldn't get KOed by some unknown foreign puncher dude that looks like a midget and has poor stamina. That's why they never took the risk; that's why he ducked Diaconu. Take it easy, chuffy.:hi:
To say that you'd be that honest, and commit to those things you mentioned would be something rarely seen in boxing, credit to you for that. Just like life in general, alot of times you have to play the system, you have to be able to manipulate certain situations to your benefit, i think that's what happened. Your post was not lost on me at all, i thanked you, and told you i'd taken your points on board, which i had Decebal. Your post was far from lost on me. I'm a knowledgable boxing fan who's been following the sport for a long time, as i'm sure you have. At the same time Decebal, i hope my post was not lost on you ? The points i raised were in my opinion legitimate, you have your beliefs, i have mine. Take care :fire
Decebal you've put forth your arguement, which made me do a bit of my own reseach :good You make your points sound as if it's all one way traffic in Diaconu's favour. Here's what i found out, hopefully this will balance things out a bit more :good The fight was scheduled to take place in Romania, home soil for Diaconu, that i don't have a problem with. As you stated it would of been a career best payday of a million dollars. Here's where the problems start as far as i can see. Showtime who have a vested interest in Dawson, were reportedly not interested in seeing Dawson fight Diaconu. They much prefered to see Dawson face the more popular IBF light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver instead. The general consencus was Dawson would have been facing a very tough atmosphere in traveling to Romania and having to fight Diaconu in front of a hostile crowd, a fight which would have placed a lot of pressure on Dawson to try and knock Diaconu out in order to avoid being on the receiving end of a home town decision loss. Chris Henry, a top light heavyweight, had recently lost a very questionable 12-round decision to Diaconu in Romania. Could this have played a part in Showtimes way of thinking Decebal ? Apparently this could have been an additional factor in helping shape his decision not to face Diaconu after all. Also take into account his backers Showtime have a huge input into what happens, which is why the Diaconu fight was scrapped and the Tarver fight was made. When the Tarver bout was made, Dawson was much better off, the fight was shown live on Showtime, with a huge audience of boxing fans watching it, and Dawson was fighting a much more poular and more recognizable fighter in Antonio Tarver. Dawson Vs Tarver was sceduled for October 11th, which was also the same night Samuel Peter defended his WBC heavyweight title against Vitali Klitschko. The addition of that fight to the package would be potentially giving the Dawson-Tarver much more attention than it would have otherwise, and worlds more than if Dawson had elected to defend his title against WBC light heavyweight mandatory Diaconu, a fighter that few Americans have ever seen fight. There's clearly alot more to this than meets the eye Decebal. Arguements can be made for both men, that's just the tip of the ice berg....