Ward should accept the catch weight of 164 and fight Golovkin

What Dawson actually said during his post-fight interview when he called Ward out was that they could fight at 168, 175 or at a catch-weight and Ward pounced on the 168 even though he knew he would be accused of draining Dawson. Dawson said he could make the weight no problem but during the post-fight presser he said he would rather not come out of his comfort zone at 175, hence why he would later actually approach team Ward about doing it at a catch-weight of 170, 2 lbs above the SMW limit. But Team Ward refused to budge saying that the fight could only take place at 168 or not at all.

Gary Shaw mentioning it here.

4:45

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At which point Virgil Hunter interjects with this classy attack on Dawson

''Speak for yourself Chad, this goes deeper then that, deeper then that'

''You ain't no Mandingo Slave Chad, You ain't no Mandingo Slave Chad''

''You ain't on no plantation no more Chad, quit letting that man speak for you, speak for yourself''

Had Ward accepted this small concession not only would he have picked up Dawson's lineal WBC strap (a belt that Ward had previously gone on record saying was the one he holds in the highest regard out of all the four major ones), but he would've also received a ton more credit for beating Dawson at full strength instead of the walking corpse that showed up on fight night. Naturally being the entitled diva he is Ward still wanted the credit for beating a full strength Dawson. Those couple of pounds obviously meant a great deal to him.

2:17 mark

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This is what Ward said about Canelo's difficulties making weight for the Mayweather fight.

''Problem is Floyd doesn't get tired and we've seen Canelo fade in fights before.. Having to take off that extra two pounds is.. people think it's just two pounds but when you already struggling to make 154 that extra two pounds is a lot. He [Canelo] is going to put on a lot of weight but he's not going to be able to put on the right kind of weight in just 24 hours. So he's gonna feel the fact that he's, you know, stripped his body, cutting his muscles to get to 152.''

---Andre Ward

Well Dawson weighed 191 for the Glen Johnson rematch, a still very lean 191. That's 23 lbs above the SMW limit, a weight Dawson hadn't made in six and a half years and 14 fights, IIRC.

And Ward would later go onto to put his foot in his mouth by trying to discredit Manny Pacquiao's victories over De La Hoya and Cotto for bringing them down in weight.

''I think Manny has a great legacy, but we got to be honest about some of his fights though. The De La Hoya fight, that’s a fight I don’t know how it would of played out if De La Hoya had been able to come in full strength, but it’s no secret that De La Hoya really had to suck himself down. Cotto had to lose weight. I’m not taking nothing from Pacquiao but with all due respect to Manny you gotta to look at Floyd’s resume, and people love to hate Floyd but people have to understand what he has been doing since the 90's, people just totally wiped out the 90's and forgot about it when it comes to Floyd Mayweather.''

Well it's no secret that Dawson had an absolutely torturous time dragging his 6'3'' frame down to a weight he hadn't fought at for six and a half years for Ward. So much so that he was getting beaten up all throughout camp by a 12-1 novice Lionell Thompson and he was so weakened by the end of it he he ended up getting dropped heavily and badly hurt in sparring by a shot Edison Miranda.

'The rumors have been circulating for weeks. Did Edison Miranda drop Chad Dawson during a sparring session? According to Miranda's trainer, Miguel Diaz, the incident happened.

For a few weeks in Las Vegas, the two fighters were training together for their respective fights on September 8th.

Dawson was getting prepared for a fight with WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, and Miranda was scheduled to head over to London to face British light heavyweight Tony Bellew. Both Dawson and Miranda suffered TKO defeats.

During one of their final sparring sessions, Miranda caught Dawson with a hard three punch combination. Dawson went down hard, says Diaz, but eventually got to his feet. They sparred for ten rounds a day or two later, without incident.

"It's very simple. That day we were prepared for a ten round workout. In the ninth round, Miranda executed something that I've been telling him to do the whole workout - left [hand], right hand, left hook - and he knocked him down. It was devastating for me, because I don't want to see something like that, but it happened. He was hurt. He tried to get up, he went down again, and got up. In fact, I screamed to Rafael Garcia 'come and help him,'

This is what Lionell Thompson's trainer Ross Thompson said on the eve of Ward-Dawson about the difficulties Dawson had making weight for that fight. He was there all throughout that camp with his fighter monitoring their sparring sessions. He actually predicted that Ward was going to ''destroy'' Dawson beforehand. No one outside of that camp was predicting that. The overwhelming consensus beforehand is that a Ward win was going to come by way of decision like every single other one of his wins against world class competition.

Ross Thompson

''I got Andre ward destroying chad Dawson 2nite Dawson had a bad camp after getting outboxed every day by my fighter lionell Thompson he finished his camp by getting stretched by his other spar partner Edison Miranda then he wants to get mad at lionell and not pay him for the work he owes lionell 8000 dollars but we will whup his ass in a real fight after ward tax that ass.''

''chad been getting beat up in camp every day and he running around here mad that he cant eat so he will be very weak also from killing himself to make the weight spent most of his camp in the sauna room instead of training but he was so mad that he was gettin outboxed by a unknown fighter that he decided to not pay lionell sayin he never agreed to pay him its ok god dont like ugly he will get his 2nite and then if he accepts the challenge lionell beat the **** out of that statue''

''yep he was real moody in camp cuz he could not eat nobody told his dumb ass to try and get down to 168 sumthin he did not have to do but he put his foot in his mouth but for him to be so mad that he did not pay his spar partners he is a ****ed up person and he will pay 2nite''

Confirmed by Steve Kim on Twitter.

''I'm told by more than one person in the know that Lionell Thompson had his way with Chad Dawson in sparring leading up to September the 8th''

And Tony Bellew posted on the Brit forum at the time that he'd seen the video of the Dawson-Miranda sparring session and that Dawson had been badly hurt.

Andre Ward 2012

"I am ready to fight the best 168- and 175-pounders that are out there," Ward told ESPN.com in a recent interview. "At this point, a big fight at 175 is interesting to me. I don't want to go up just to go up. But for the right fight, for a big fight, I would go up. I'm willing to fight anyone at '68 or '75."

And again

“People ask me on the street or on Twitter when I'm coming back,” said Ward, who is expecting his fourth child with wife Tiffiney in mid-June. “Well, I'm coming. I want Bute but I'm ready for any big fight at 168 or 175 pounds.”

Andre Ward, 2011

"After the tournament, I want to face Lucian Bute. Nobody else comes to mind. However, I do not intend to underestimate any opponent, and first I need to focus on winning the tournament. If I win the tournament and beat Bute, it would be everything that I could achieve [at this weight]. Therefore, in the future I do intend to move up. I want to win titles and face the best. The tournament, organized by Showtime, gave me the opportunity to fight the best fighters in my category, and after its completion there won't be anything for me at this weight''

And again.

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Hmm.. so he was ready for anyone at 168 and 175 back in 2011-2012, and any big fight at 175, but they wouldn't agree to face Dawson at a catch-weight of just 2 lbs above the SMW limit even though he would've nabbed Dawson's prestigious 175 WBC strap and lineal title and received a hell of a lot more credit for beating a full strength version of him instead of the drained shell of him?

Ward already had home advantage and two Californian judges in tow for Dawson so why couldn't he agree to a simple concession of 2 lbs given that and what he had to gain from beating Dawson at a catch-weight? He didn't even have to agree to fight Dawson at 175 to get his hands on his WBC belt and lineal title, a mere concession of 2 measly pounds on his part would've got him it. Like I said, those 2lbs obviously meant a lot to him.