I agree, Dawson had an iron jaw, Ward ruined him. I wouldn't be surprised if Ward KO's glass jawed Kov in couple of rounds :yep
Yeah I agree actually, I think you're right that draining to 168 changed dawson, during and after the fight he wasn't the same fighter he was against Hopkins. Ward did truly ruin him with the catch weight. Good point mate :good:
Yeah it's clearly Ward's fault that Dawson challenged him on HBO to a 168 lb bout, really was. :roll: Fact is: Dawson made claims on multiple occasions that he would make 168 easily, his team even raved about how easy it was in the 24/7 episode. He looked fine and dandy going into the bout, he was just against a world operator. End of. :deal
Ward destroyed the LHW #1 and p4p #10. One of the best wins of the last 20 years, not just this decade. A truly brilliant performance.
Made the weight easily...never once objected to the weight, in fact he insisted it was at 168 as he wanted Ward's belts. He just got destroyed by one of the greats...no shame in that. He had no excuses after, he realised he just cannot **** with that level of greatness. Ward shone in one of the best head to head fights of the last 20 years :yep
It may be splitting hairs, but I'd put it on Prince for wrecking Chad. Andre, as a fighter, should ask for every advantage in the book. That's how negotiations get started. Prince, as Chad's manager, should've known better than to comply. Prince did, of course, know better- he was simply acting unethically since he was literally on both sides of the table, advising both Ward and Dawson. Chad got betrayed by the people who should have had his interests in mind. Ultimately a boxer has to learn the business side to avoid things like that, but I still feel some sympathy for him. Heck, I can't even fully hold Andre responsible for his inflated self-worth the more I think about it. Prince got him the lineal LHW champion, coming off a win over an ATG, to come to his weight, in his hometown, and he got a 70/30 split. This is coming off the Super Six, where Goossen landed him hometown advantage. Why wouldn't he feel like he can call all the shots? No wonder he felt like he was doing Golovkin a favor at 50/50 at 168 in 2016. He's used to having name fighters signing on for far worse terms.
prime version is a mw. chad beat adamek is a solid win. pascal kicked his ass. thats swept under the carpet. jean beat him up, and ward being more skilled was only going to beat up a drained version. not a great win. not even good. :good
He was always highly underrated. A truly great fighter of the last 10 years with some truly elite wins in his locker...wins that put most of the current World Champions to shame. It's no coincidence he declined so heavily after being beaten by a great in the form of Andre Ward.
Said "primer" not "prime". lol Dawson was about to take Pascal out when the fight was stopped but Pascal got the win so I won't try to take that away from him. My point remains, Kovalev's best win is over an old Hopkins whose best days were at middleweight(according to you) a decade ago. No one on his resume compares to Adamek. As such, if Dawson was overrated then so is Kovalev at this point in time.
It was a great name but everyone knows what that fight was, stop please Disclaimer: I am likely Chad Dawson's biggest fan on this site.