I'm sure there have been loads of threads, I'm not going to go thru and find one to post on. Props to both guys for putting on a pretty good fight. Pascal in my opinion deserved the decision that he got. With that said, I did get the feeling that Dawson was on the way to dropping if not stopping Pascal. I've got no justification for it, the fight just had the feeling that Dawson was turning the gas on and Pascal was getting hit more and more. Pascal is a good fighter, both men are for that matter. Question, did anyone else get the feeling that if Dawson just had more urgency he could have been way ahead on the scorecards but instead just seemed very apathetic and resigned to fighting in spurts?
I felt the same. From round 6 Pascal was beginning to tire, and this really should have given Dawson the green light to take the fight to him. If he did, there's no doubt in my mind he would been ahead on the scorecards by round 11, maybe have even been in the process of getting a stoppage win. Because the few times Dawson did let his hands go, it was clear to see that Pascal didn't like it. If I were a Dawson fan, I'd be very disappointed with what he put on last night.
I feel as if Dawson does not care. I saw a guy not willing to put forth the effort to win a tough fight. His post fight interview confirmed how i was feeling. It was a close fight, I thought it was a toss up at the time of stoppage, but Dawson didn't deserve it. Weird performance.
I understand what you're saying and sort of agree. I really feel like he's got the skills to pay the bills just not the mentality. Pascal clearly turtled when Dawson did throw, Dawson just didnt do it enough. It was indeed a weird and strange performance. All the rest of the boxing world could see that Pascal was tiring and I'm sure Dawson saw it also, but instead chose not to take the initiative. Strange indeed.
First off: Hats off to pascal and his team which came in with an unexpected gameplan (IMO) that ultimately beat chad dawson. From the first round on I saw something that made me think wow. That was the fact that dawson was the stalker and pascal was the mover. I really thought this would be the other way around and was surprised that dawsons people didn't ajust a little bit to beat the style and strategy that pascal was using. Pascal's strategy IMO was to jump in with shots(flurries) while dawson moved after him from time to time conserving most of his energy. This basically plays off of fans cheering at every time pascal swings which not only makes it hard for judges but also got into dawson's head. When pascal did jump in with his flurry he rarely landed the first shot he threw(minus a few straght rights), but was able to knock dawson off balance to land the second, third, forth or how many he had to throw to land one. Also Like I always say "Getting knocked off balance even if you block a shot is never a good look to the judges". This basically took chad off his game as he is the hunted and not the hunter in just about all of his fights. When you chase then you surrender your feet to a fighter moving laterally. The pascal strategy turned an all around boxer like dawson into a 1-2 stalker like tarver, trinadad, or pavlik (though a faster less powerful version). The strategy is simular to the hopkins strategy for beating 1-2 stalkers and pascal put his own twist on it with explosive flurries. 2nd: Dawson showed his heart out there. I always knew he had more heart than people gave him credit for. He knew where he was at and went out and tried to end it and almost got the KO because pascal was so tired. Bad thing for dawson was that he was just about as tired as pascal. As for the head butts: I think dawson was very cautious of him running in with his head during the flurries. That pretty much happens all the time when fighters match up and fight in this way. Dawson becoming the 1-2 stalker and pascal moving around and darting in, pushing dawson off balance with his body and punches, always makes for head butts when the stalker holds his ground. I think dawson didn't receive many or any significant headbutts to prior to the last one that stopped the fight. As for the fight stoppage, I thought it was garbage and I can't remember any fight being stopped right at the time of the head butt/cutt. I thought it should have been dawson's choice to continue. I don't remember him arguing so I guess he was content with the stoppage with the brutal fight he had just been in. These two were exhausted. Great fight and can't wait for the rematch. AND yes I have dawson in the rematch
Dawson's like one of them talented kids you get in the gym who struggles when things aren't going his way and get's into a set pattern. He refused to counter Pascal when the check hook was there. He used that punch sparingly and when he did he landed and he once landed a sweet uppercut that hurt Pascal. His mindset is to not get hit, and when i do hit get away from the danger and reset. So last night when push come to shove he had no answers till late on when he knew it was do or die. His excuses were laughable and Larry Merchant was clearly in disgust when he used petty excuses in interview.
the doc was smart to stop the fight after the cut, it was bleeding profusely, Dawson would have been blind in one eye for the rest of the round and could have been in serious trouble. That been said, Chad is being a whiny little ***** about his loss, saying the he was headbutted while he was the one who came inside on pascal causing the headbutt. This **** caused me to lose respect for Chad- you have to give Pascal his props last night he fought and intelligent game.
As I stated in my post. Everyone who has had this strategy done to him complained of headbutts because that's what happens when fighters match up and the fight plays out like this. Check my post and see that I explain the headbutts. Same reason kessler complained from ward and pavlik complained from hopkins and tyson complained from holyfield, is because when a stalker holds his ground against someone who is darting in to knock him backwards he has to worry about headbutts. Pretty simple and he should find a way to deal with that stragegy being used against him like all the other 1-2 stalkers need to find a way when that strategy is used against them.
I hear you Mandanda and Diggersan. That cut was nasty and would have left him blinded by the blood during the rest of the round. The excuses were terrible and left a sour taste in the mouths of many boxing fans.
Also, That was the only fight I can think off that got stopped right at the time of the cut. Can you think of any fights that you have ever seen that got stopped right after the cut.
In between rounds when Eddie pulled his trunks up he even moaned ''there tooo heavy!!''. Before the fight as the fighters were in the ring they mentioned that Dawson is moving away from his home town to get away from the people that ''want a piece of him'' and his father wasn't in the corner last night when he normally is....anyone know the situation there??
