Joe Calzaghe vs Chad Dawson

I think your analysis is a little overboard. You are going to dismiss anything anyone says in favor of Dawson anyways, but Calzaghe doesn't do everything better than Dawson.

Dawson has more footspeed, equal handspeed and very good accuracy. He and Calzaghe may be even in power due to Calzaghe having brittle hands (Calzaghe hit harder earlier on)

If Calzaghe got on the inside, it wouldn't be a close fight. If Dawson kept him outside with his footspeed and jab, it would be evenly matched right now. Dawson's ring intelligence has yet to come into play, so who knows how good or bad it is.

 

Dawson has most of Calzaghe's talent and skills, advantage of youth and clearly fewer flaws in his style. If he is hungry enough he will devour the old lion. This match is unlikely inasmuch as Dawson has no fan base and does not command the big paychecks.

 

Fair points.

I think everyones in agreement that it would be a 1-sided fight if Joe managed to get on the inside consistantly.

But I also think Joe is superior on the outside aswell. Dawson doesnt have the best defence and I think Joe would have a field day.

For Dawson to win he would have to do a LOT on the night that he hasnt previously done in any other of his fights.

But like I said, if you could freeze Joe Calzaghe's age, let Dawson develop a bit more, fight a few world class fighters, see him in a few scraps and just generally know what he's a bout a bit more and let him improve, then I feel a better fight would be had.

 

Fair enough. I am in agreement that no one really knows how good Dawson really is. What he did to Adamek was pretty good indicator of what he would do to Woods IMO being that Adamek has more power and couldn't keep Dawson honest. I am not sure any of the other top level fighters will fight Dawson anytime soon though.

 

Dawson is right handed. Leads with that right. But Calzaghe's jab is still better.

And Calzaghe dominant handed left far superior to Dawson's left.

Calzaghe should win so long as the fight happened soon.

 

LOL who is this? Joe Calzaghes dad Enzo? :rofl

 

One thing that I think Dawson has over a lot of boxers today is he has a lot of the fundamentals down which means that he has very little room for mistakes - he's also very "fresh" meaning his reaction time/coordination and speed are all still in sync with each other - I really cant see a lot of people beating Dawson right now.

 

I disagree on all points. Dawson has a more dedicated jab with a 3.5-inch reach advantage. Given the closeness in speed, that's a key factor.

Calzaghe's left may be superior to Dawson's, but it isn't by as much as you claim, not at 175. Dawson is the bigger man and continues to grow into the division.

The greatest advantage Calzaghe has is his experience on the world stage. Chad has had one big fight, but even that was nothing at all like Eubank, Lacy or Kessler for Joe. If the fight were staged in Wales, that could prove decisive.

It's a damn close fight to handicap.

 

Calzaghe is highly unlikely to get inside consistently. He's the smaller man with less reach, no clear speed advantage, worse defense (Where the hell do you get Dawson having a leaky defense?) and with less power.

Joe has advantages of his own, but this is a totally different opponent compared with Lacy or Kessler.

 

I generally agree with your posts on this bout (that won't ever happen), but I give Dawson a little better chance.

My only real disagreement is that their power is equal. I think Dawson clearly is the better puncher, given that JC's power is a question mark at the higher weight. Calzaghe is the better swarmer and can overwhelm an opponent with speed, but I don't think he would go up to 175 and stop Dawson's most recent two opponents as quickly (especially Ruiz). But that's certainly arguable.

 

I don't question Dawson's power, I think it's underrated. I am unsure of Calzaghe's true power. He doesn't sit on anything. I know he USED to have very good power. I based my thoughts on that.

 

Even recently, when he's really put force behind his shots, he's nearly always buzzed his opponents from those particular shots, such as that body shot he landed on Kessler. It made a big 'thud' and Kessler winced.

By comparison, Kessler seemed to smirk at some of Andrade's body shots that happened to land.

 

There you go everyone, the most biased and un-objective analysis you could possibly come up with. Well done.

 

Chad Dawson by UD. Chad has quicker hand speed, is taller, has a longer reach and is the bigger more powerful fighter at Light Heavy Weigh. This is a very bad fight for Joe. Chad is very unorthadox, and can do things in the ring that Joe would have trouble adapting to. The angles he uses, the head and upperbody movement and the unorthadox combinations are all things that would give Joe trouble. People here are under rating the inside fighting ability of Chad. Chad is very well rounded, fights well both off the ropes and in the middle of the rind and is solid defensively. His "shakey" chin coming from getting a flash knockdown against a powerful and large light heavy weight. Rubbish. Joe proved against Kessler, that he has trouble closing the distance when his opponent decideds to counter punch. Hence getting caught with the uppercuts badly on the way in. I very highly doubt Joe's ability to outbox Dawson from the centre of the ring, and whilst I think the fight would be very tactical and competitive, i highly doubt Joe could really do anything here to trouble Dawson. Joe is too old to risk coming in open to get his own shots on also. Dawson has under rated power, and this would be a very dangerous move on Joe's part.

 

The only place Joe really beats Dawson here is on the inside, and if you think he can close the gap on a faster, longer, bigger and stronger opponent I think you are badly mistaken.