Should Dawson drop John Scully?

It's true that Dawson's skills continue to decline everytime he switches trainers. It's not your fault though that Dawson fired 7 trainers before hiring you. You were put in a tough spot you had to come up with a gameplan against Bernard Hopkins. I'm assuming you did not have the time to evaluate Dawson, see what he does wrong, what he needs to fix.

Andre Ward as great as he is, he wouldn't be the boxer he is today if he switched trainers every year or two.

Dawson looked great in 2007 and a lot of that credit goes to Floyd Mayweather Sr. His defense improved under Sr and just his overall skills. Sr taught him lateral movement, how to use his height and reach to establish the jab, and other things that improved his game. It's no coincidence that Chad hasn't looked the same since leaving Floyd Mayweather Sr.

Chad's footwork is not good as it used to be, he's not using foot movement to distance himself against smaller opponents. Dawson is 6'3 why is he ducking low trying to be Pernell Whitaker? Emmanuel Steward discouraged that, and told him NOT to do that, and Chad listened. Chad needs a trainer to fix his mistakes. Just watch his tapes in 2007, and watch the fight against Diaconu when Steward was in his corner. I know a lot fans criticize that fight, but Chad was doing a lot of things right. Watch the Adamek fight. Adamek wasn't that much smaller then Chad, yet Chad did not fight small, he kept Adamek at arm's length, using lateral movement to distance himself.

 

I never claimed I know Dawson better then Scully. But I want to make things clear from what I see as a fan, Dawson hasn't looked good under Scully. I wasn't impressed by neither Hopkins fights, and this isn't something I noticed after the Ward fight. I noticed this after the Hopkins fight that Dawson can't throw the left-cross correctly. Dawson footwork looked worse. Any fan can see that Dawson wasn't going to beat Ward by the way he fought against Hopkins.

Hopkins had the most OBVIOUS strategy against Dawson. He was using footwork to avoid Dawson's jab and circling to Dawson's right. Chad should have been pumping out the left cross repeatedly, but he couldn't for some reason. And everytime Chad would shoot the straight left, his feet would get out of place, and it wasn't even a straight left, it was a crooked straight left. When Chad was with Steward against Diaconu, he was throwing the left-cross at will and correctly. He was using foot movement to create distance. Dawson had a hard time creating distance against Hopkins and getting his feet in proper position, which is probably why he couldn't throw the straight-left correctly.


As for the preparation for the Ward fight, it was terrible from what I heard. He got knocked out from Miranda, he spent more time losing weight than training, there were reports from Chad's own brother that he was getting beat up by his sparring partners. It didn't matter what advice Scully gave to Dawson, because preparation for the fight was terrible and he was weight drained. Chad was not mentally nor physically ready for Ward