**My Official Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson Preview & Prediction (for better or worse)**

I can't argue with any of what you said here!

:cheers

While I honestly believe that this will be the night Chad puts all together, I'm not overly confident in this prediction. I know what Ward is capable of (and was one of the few to go on record picking him to beat Kessler).

I was EXTREMELY confident that Froch would beat Bute.

And I admit, I like Ward. It goes against every fiber of my being to pick against him.

But something about Chad's last performance against Bernard has been stuck in my head of late, and that comment Ward made to me about Bike had me really thinking long and hard on this one.

I am fired-up!

After the long **** show of a drought boxing fans had to endure until GGG delivered a category 5 hurricane, tomorrow (today technically) feels like the Super Bowl of Boxing with all of the good action taking place.

I'm pre-partying with a few beers right now.

:smoke

 

I suspect Ward is going to find himself on the outside for a good portion of the first few rounds. The question is how often can Ward get in, and when he does get in, how often can he catch Chad.

I can certainly foresee a scenario where Ward might have more success figuring this out earlier than I'm anticipating, but I think Ward, to a large extent, is going to follow the Hopkins blue print on the lead rights. Hopkins was landing a lot of great lead rights, but just one at a time. With Ward's tremendous left hook, I can see him putting together nice lead right-left hook two punch combos. And when Ward is stuck in a half-clinch or fighting in the phone booth, I can see him ripping Chad both upstairs and down with short combos of hooks and cuts.

But I think getting inside on Dawson will prove a more daunting task than Ward realizes.

I'm banking on the fact that Chad's head is in the right place (and I firmly believe it is). Even if it's totally there, that's no guarantee he beats a world class talent like Ward, but while I think Chad's tool box may not have has many as Ward's - I think the tools Chad has will get more done (*as long as he chooses and uses the right tool for the proper situation - something in the past he's been known to not do at times).

I am also banking on the fact that Scully will keep Chad on track if he faces some adversity in there (like Iceman did last time when Bernard was getting to Chad a bit in the early-mid rounds).

I'm just overall excited for this fight!

Thanks for reading!

:good

 

:thumbsup

 

I think he will come forward insofar as he can. I think what Chad will try to do first and foremost is maintain his proper optimal fighting range. This will be very tricky to maintain, of course.

So I think Chad will react to Ward. If Ward presses, I think Chad will tend to sit back. If Ward tries hanging back, I think Chad presses at range. But I think the key is trying to keep that range depending on how Ward approaches.

The end result I feel will be a mixture, because I think Ward is going to try and set traps a variety of different ways.

I'm still not sure if I actually answered your question, but I think we're really going to see something interesting in terms of adjustments, counter-adjustments, trickery, ruggedness, aggression, punch variety, and pace.

One thing I'm kicking myself in the ass for not mentioning in my preview is Chad's very good uppercut, that could play a factor where he might be able to set a few traps for Ward to lure him in.

Can't wait!

 

Thanks for reading, H!
:good