How good was Chad Dawson?

Still can't understand why Dawson would make a bone headed move of draining himself down in weight to fight Ward. It really makes me wonder how much better Chad Dawson would have done against Andre Ward if he had just decided to stay in his weight class and made Ward fight him at 175. He would have potentially posed a more challenging fight for Ward. That was one of the biggest career mistake since RJJ moving back down to LHW after fighting at HW.

 

Probably just impatience. Ward wasn't talking about moving up at the time - so only way for Dawson to get back into the top PFP contention was moving down to fight Andre at his weight. I think that kind of impatience often hurts fighters - but it's usually them moving up in weight for big fight, rather than moving down. Mikey Garcia moving up to fight Spence, Rigondeaux moving up to fight Lomachenko etc.

As for Roy, He had a set goal in mind of repeating the feat of Bob Fitzsimmons, where it was not only about him moving up to win a title at Heavyweight, but also about moving back down and defending his Light Heavyweight title again.
I'm not sure I agree that it was such a big mistake. He still managed to beat Tarver and it's one of the better wins of his career. Probably in the top 5 at least? Would He have any success at Heavyweight beyond Ruiz fight? I think it's somewhat doubtful as well, as his athlethicism was already fading ever before Ruiz fight.

 

When the opposition is being stupid you take advantage of them simple.

 

Tbf this isn't a situation you can blame Ward for. Dawson didn't have to call him out and didn't have to move down to 168.

We can say Ward doesn't get full credit for beating a prime Dawson, but Dawson pursued the fight.

 

Whoever advised him to move down to fight ward is the dumbest ****er of all time guy was ruined after that

 

He was a very good fighter but also very foolish to think he can move down to 168 and beat Ward. He might have had a chance at 175.

 

He was the biggest hyped name of his era's major light heavyweight prospects trio (including Diaconu and Pascal) but in hindsight probably not the best h2h, and IMO the least entertaining of all three.

 

I just remember he had Wilder legs in that fight against Ward, looked very uncomfortable like he was on stilts. I don't actually count it as a particularly great Andre Ward performance.

 

Agree, that is what I wanted to see. I always wanted to see Andre Ward face a slick boxer that had speed and he managed to avoid them or face them by draining them. Wanted him to fight Andre Dirrell but that went by in the tournament. James Degale would have been a nightmare for Ward. Ward also avoided Bute

Chad Dawson was a throwback, couldn't sell a ticket and was too brave for his own good. I'll give him props for that. He would have got splattered by Kovalev but the division was his before Kovalev came to the US.

 

He had some talent, could box, it wasn´t easy to hit him, but was painfully boring to watch, had a aversion to throw punches.
The Stevenson KO was a big upset and basically broke him forever.
He wasn´t bad.

 

Change the word "Dre" to " my lover" and this post reveals it's true story.

 

He packed glass just like Wilder too!!

 

Unfortunately for your fantasy both Dre and I are married to beautiful women. However there are others who would accommodate you.