People forget Ward drained Dawson to 168lb.

When official negotiations went down, Ward's team told him 168 or no fight. Dawson tried for 170.

Agreed that it wouldn't have made a difference towards the outcome- even with Chad being pretty talented, Ward's superior intangibles would always be too much when combined with his own ability.

 

Dawson asked for then proceeded to sign a contract for 168lbs. There is *nothing* to be said beyond that...

 

Wrong. Dawson drained himself to 168 and it was one of the worst mistakes of his career.

 

An understatement. Coming off of the Hopkins victory, Dawson was the man with the leverage and the options, IMO. Volunteering to go to 168lbs was General Custer level stupid..

 

It was brave of Ward to not budge an inch with Dawson. His hometown, his weight class. WWJD

 

Because, unlike Dawson, Ward isn't dumb enough to lose a fight @ the negotiating table.

 

And volunteering to do fight at 168 in Oakland was as smart as the offspring of General Custer and a dodo.

Honestly, whenever one fighter makes so many concessions, one of the first places to look is management- and it seems like conflicting interests at best that James Prince managed both guys and had Chad literally concede everything.

 

Dawson is an idiot, but that still diminishes the win significantly.

 

Apparently GGG isn't either?

 

Nobody forgot the draining. If anything, it was the victory over Dawson that was forgotten, because of it. (rightfully so)

 

So he's dumb enough to go to 168 for Baby Chavez and Froch but not for Ward. Is that your argument?

 

Ward would have beaten Dawson even if the fight were @ 175. Sure, Dawson being weight drained taints the victory but lets not act as if Dawson was competitive at any point during that fight. He wasn't. '68 or '75, Ward would have got in that ass regardless...

 

How was going to 168 for JCC Jr and Froch dumb for GGG? ...and sure, we can say Ward was certainly more dangerous at 168 for GGG. So how is GGG dumb?

What exactly are you arguing?

 

And, to reinforce that the "negotiations" weren't just dumb, but practically negligent from Chad's team, he also made $600,000 for that fight.

Andre made $1.36 million.

So, Chad:

1) Goes all the way to Ward's weight.
2) Fights in Ward's hometown
3) Does it for less than 1/3 of the purse.

I find it really hard to believe Prince was acting professionally on behalf of Dawson with terms like that considering he also worked for Andre, too.

 

What am I arguing? I'm trying to follow your line of reasoning. You seemed to suggest above that Bumlovkin isn't dumb enough to lose a fight @ the negotiating table by agreeing to fight Ward @ 168. If that's your argument then please explain why Bumlovkin was willing to fight both Baby Chavez and Froch @ 168...