Dawson rips Tarver…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
I’ve always seen myself as a pretty big Antonio Tarver fan. But man, I really wanted “Bad” Chad Dawson to tear him apart last night.
While Dawson did not do that, he easily did enough to yoink the No. 1 spot in the light heavyweight division from The Magic Man.
Two judges had it 117-110 while another had it a crazy 118-109. For those scoring at home, I had it 116-112 for Dawson.
Dawson wins rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 while Tarver takes 3, 6 and 11. I scored round 10 even at 10-10 and round 12 even at 9-9. Dawson scored the knockdown but Tarver fought with a sense of urgency and won the round huge after.
Dawson’s speed was just too much. Both with his footwork and with his hands. It was a boxing clinic. Neither fighter really landed anything flush. The ear muffs were on and most everything was a deflected blow.
Dawson won this fight with body punching, IMO. He was relentless downstairs and Tarver, though still fighting gamely, had no steam on his punches from the mid-rounds on.
I was still a little disappointed. When you have young cat like Dawson who can do anything he wants when he wants (I truly believe that), why doesn’t he just push Tarver to no end? Why give him one second of rest?
Dawson doesn’t need the break. Tarver’s the one who is almost 40 years old. I don’t like when young fighters allow themselves to fight at an old man’s pace. Dawson didn’t do that for most of the night, but there were times when I just felt, man, jump on him and get him out.
My boy, Floyd Mayweather, was in the house and proclaimed Dawson the new No. 1 pound-for-pound king in the sport. Dawson said “Money May” called him before the fight to tell him that, and it gave Dawson extreme confidence. He fought like it, too.
I never got to really elaborate on it because I was so busy with softball, but boxing needed Dawson to win. Like I said, I like Tarver. I was giddy with joy when he KO’d Roy Jones. But Tarver is a plodding fighter and doesn’t make for really good fights. And at his age, he’s selective (you might argue rightfully so). But he takes too long between fights and is only looking at dollar signs against the right people.
Dawson is definitely looking for the money, but he doesn’t care who he fights. It could be Kelly Pavlik, Jones, Joe Calzaghe or any of the young guns coming up. Dawson is not selective, who’ll beat ‘em all down and has done so with his 27-0 record.
On the other hand, the less said about Vitali Klitschko and Sam Peter, the better. Yeah, it’s a big win for Vitali, but it was beyond a flat performance by Peter. He’s just not what I wanted him to be.
When I saw Peter a couple of years ago, I thought there goes the future of the heavyweight division. No, he’s too limited. He gets in with a big guy and doesn’t know how to get inside. He takes jabs all night and just swells up and gets discouraged. And Saturday, he just quit after eight rounds. That’s not the heavyweight champion.
After a thrilling (no joke) weekend of high school softball, it was pretty cool to get home Saturday night to watch Dawson and Tarver.
For the record, I still believe Seth Petruzelli and Kimbo Slice was not fixed. Call me naive, but I have to believe this. If it was, then it’s a crushing blow to the overall credibility of MMA.
Next week, we gots Pavlik and the wily one himself, Bernard Hopkins. No guarantees, but I’ll try to hit something up before then.
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