Dawson’s Creed
 By Coyote Duran (Feb 10, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © Tom Casino/SHOWTIME)
“In a recent media presser, (Now-WBC light heavyweight titleholder Chad) Dawson expressed his opinions on (former titlist Tomasz) Adamek's lack of defense. However, one man's lack of defense is another's bread and butter. For proof, remember the classic boxer vs. puncher showdown in Ricardo Mayorga-Vernon Forrest I and II. Some punchers with a seemingly crap defense simply cannot be denied. Tomasz Adamek is one of them and his heart will frustrate Dawson who'll enter the ring with what he thinks will be the game plan to beat all. Adamek wins, not by knockout but by split decision that could go either way in the fans' eyes. The loss will be frustrating for 'Bad' Chad but it'll set up a possible rematch in the future for the WBC light heavyweight strap at stake.”
– Coyote Duran, Doghouse Boxing associate editor/resident idiot, February 3, 2007, pre-fight.
So much for my so-called ‘expert analysis’, huh? If there ever was an ‘LOL’ moment for Yours Truly, it had to be on Sunday morning upon re-reading my own half-baked prediction regarding how ‘Bad’ Chad Dawson would fare against the seemingly indomitable, now-former WBC light heavyweight titlist, Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek in their main event featured on the Showtime network, Saturday night. So when I read my lousy-ass prediction again, post-fight, stating that Dawson’s boxing skills wouldn’t put him over the forward-moving, previously undefeated Pole, I had to actually laugh out loud at my silly, silly naïveté when considering the luck that dyed-in-the-wool punchers have had in years previous against their much more skilled, diagnostic counterparts.
I was wrong. What can ya do? :)
So, now that everything is said and done and Dawson has leapt into the light heavyweight spotlight with his very decisive win over a fighter who’s been one-half of two exciting, definitive light heavyweight title fights over the past one-and-a-half years, where exactly does ‘Bad Chad’ stand in this spotlight? Previously, Dawson was listed in The Ring magazine’s 175-pound ratings at number ten. With the win over Adamek, Dawson will obviously jump in their ratings. Personally, I’d like to see Dawson usurp Adamek’s # 5 position, sending Adamek to six or seven. It would make sense to give Dawson a three-spot rise to seven, as well, if the previous option wasn’t feasible to The Ring’s ratings’ committee. Up until Adamek’s loss, his wins over Australian Paul Briggs helped to define the potential of the light heavyweight division in a way that Roy Jones Jr. hadn’t been able to five years ago in a Leo Getz-talking-about-Froggy-in-‘Lethal Weapon 4’-way. Not better, but different.
When Jones led the division after unifying the alphabet titles, (post-Dariusz Michalczewski’s near unification-then-stripping down to mere WBO status) the 175-pound class was far less complicated with one definitive ‘master of all he surveyed’ and many serfs with dreams of freedom and supremacy in their eyes. The Glen Kellys. The Ricky Fraziers. The Montell Griffins. Few good. Most questionable, at best. Since Jones’ return to the division after handing John Ruiz his ass at heavyweight, his career, as all know, had taken the proverbial downward slide when, in his next fight, Jones sheared himself down to a weak 175 in order to barely defend his Ring magazine World Light Heavyweight Championship against Antonio Tarver. We all know what happened afterwards.
Since Jones’ momentous fall from grace, the light heavyweight landscape has bloomed like a fertile field after a control burn. Battles between Tarver and Glencoffe Johnson showed that two legitimate top ten light heavies could bring clarity to the division. Adamek and Briggs gave the world-at-large (and Chicago, Illinois no less!) two highly entertaining throwdowns that more than lived up to their billing in potential. Meanwhile, dark horses in Johnson, WBO light heavyweight titleholder (and honest-to-goodness linear champion) Zsolt Erdei (Hey, Erdei beat Julio Gonzalez who split decisioned Michalczewski who won the WBA and IBF belts to add to his own WBO trinket, pre-Ring Championship policy. History, kids. History.) and IBF titlist Clinton Woods continue to kick and scrape their way in the ratings, using guts and gumption to hold on to their coveted slots in status any way they can.
If that isn’t enough for you to see how much the division has evolved in such little time, ask yourself this: Did you see former Undisputed Middleweight Champion Bernard Hopkins EVER becoming Ring magazine World Light Heavyweight Champion after losing twice to Jermain Taylor? Our Sport, she is a fickle mistress.
I think it’s an honest assessment to say that divisions like light heavyweight, super middleweight and middleweight (all divisions Chad Dawson has made gradual marks in very recently) are experiencing the same growth and potential for fanatic-friendly fights that classes like featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight have enjoyed throughout the past five years. I suppose the valuable lesson had to be that boxing, in its own separate little cliques, waxes and wanes like phases of the moon. Each division awaited its time and, apparently, each time has come.
In this time, is it so unfathomable to see a talent such as Dawson to emerge now, in the right time and the right place, when the division is at its most promising? Nope. And that’s makes Dawson’s uprising so special in itself. Right place, right time.
This mentality is merely one of the variables that makes Dawson’s potential to be a future pound-for-pound entrant, much less a true blue world champion, so much closer to reality. Add this to the fact that, not unlike Hopkins, the current recognized world champion, Dawson is an American with a pretty damn good fistic education, gleaning knowledge from the sage of the sage, from those who walked in Dawson’s shoes, contention-wise, like ex-fighter Iceman John Scully to the tried, true-and-devoted builder of champs in Dan Birmingham to the timely, if not more controversial, in Floyd Mayweather Sr. What’s working, moreover, is the amalgam of styles Dawson has ultimately combined (thanks to the aforementioned) in order to become the fighter who beat Tomasz Adamek so one-sidedly.
Certainly, Dawson’s got his flaws (and getting popped and dropped by Adamek in the tenth when Dawson’s defense lapsed ever so overconfidently) but, realistically, who doesn’t? And at his age, are Chad Dawson’s few, apparent flaws enough to deter him from making a long stay near the top of the light heavyweight kingdom? Let’s analyze what Dawson and his camp are looking at as their next career steps and how they differ from where the smart money should actually be spent.
After Saturday night’s fight, Dawson, in elation, called out everyone’s who everyone in the division from Tarver to Woods.
At this point, should the 38-year-old Tarver, who looked so much like the ‘Oceans 11’-ed Lennox Lewis that I predicted he might wind up as, post-‘Rocky Balboa’, even consider facing the faster, sharper Dawson? Not a solid idea. And for promoter Gary Shaw to attempt to coerce Tarver into the ring with taunts regarding Tarver’s other options in pursuing ‘one of those paper Burger King crowns’? Got news for ya, Uncle Gar: Dawson’s strap is just as flimsy, but look on the bright side: such as Adamek had, Dawson’s holding of the shitty green belt will make it so much more desirable for the next challenger down the pike.
Clinton Woods is a solid, wonderful option and, despite his silly-yet-ironically-hard-earned IBF strap, his back-and-forth wins and losses against Glen Johnson have helped to cement his position in the top ten. Even when Woods challenged the once-great Jones back in 2002, Woods acquitted himself grittily as a vision of things to come. Dude’s money.
As mentioned, Zsolt Erdei, who is indeed the linear champion, is also a purist’s option not only for his record’s history but to tie everything together, thus eliminating all argument as to who is the true, deserved heir to the division. Think this isn’t an appealing consideration? Consider how European middleweight Felix Sturm indelibly entrenched himself in the collective psyche of fans when he ‘lost’ to Oscar De La Hoya in the summer of 2004, thus eradicated his own previously unknown status. Sometimes the foreign threat isn’t exactly the most obvious choice to readily dismiss. When thinking about Erdei, also think about his ease in defeating Julio Gonzalez who, in turn, schooled Daruisz Michalczewski who was linear upon linear, at one time and that former distinction didn’t become ‘former’ because Roy Jones Jr. stuck his nose into ‘The Tiger’s’ business.
Odd’s are that Erdei isn’t the man Chad Dawson elects to chase. Once more, the smart money dictates that Dawson’s neither literally nor figuratively heard of Zsolt Erdei, therefore, Erdei becomes contention collateral damage. Prone to immediate elimination despite his relevance to said division. Screaming at the top of his lungs yet never, ever heard. F__ckin’ bummer, man.
Who remains is a duo of dubiousness in Ring magazine World Champion Bernard Hopkins and…Winky Wright?!
Yes, Winky Wright.
As most of you have heard by now, the negotiations have been thrown against the wall like al dente spaghetti ready for Father Guido Sarducci’s dog, Sport, to gobble it up, not unlike so many fans who craved Hopkins-Wright 2 ½ years ago. Timing savvy? Maybe. It might hold water if either Hopkins or Wright ducked any challengers but as long as they demand the money and network slot fighters of their caliber demand, who’s to argue? Does it leave Dawson out in the cold? Somewhat. Is it better for Dawson to stop and smell the roses while Hopkins and Wright battle it out for a better championship distinction? Unquestionably.
Chad Dawson is still a very young man. Much like many of the young turks ruling the sport’s upper echelon, division-wise, he’s got time. Why not wait for the next contender for Hopkins’ real belt to fade out, be it Hopkins or Wright? No matter what, whoever Dawson faces in the aftermath will be the most marketable (very likely for HBO. Hopkins and Wright are perennial darlings of the premium subscription network) option for Chad Dawson to face. The absolutes are glaring. Whether or not Hopkins successfully retains his strap or Wright upsets him, Dawson will enter the ring first in his own challenge of said champion. And this leaves Dawson as the potential torch-bearer at light heavyweight .
It wouldn’t be the first time youth was king in the past two years. Ironically, the last man to bask in that glow was indeed Jermain Taylor, Undisputed Middleweight Champion (regardless of how the idiots in the WBA and the IBF doth protest) and last conqueror of Bernard Hopkins. What this proclaims is that there’s a burgeoning trend in Our Sport in young fighters beating the odds and all the ‘expert analyses’ so’s to make their own fates a reality. Taylor did it. Dawson looks to be on the precipice. If Hopkins’ history against the belt-hungry ‘youth gone wild’ is any indication, ‘The Executioner’s’ championship stay might just be an abbreviated one. Is there a pattern in place? Well, you can’t stop time or fate. If that’s the case, you had better assign a ‘director’s chair’ at super middle for Peter Manfredo Jr.
"It's been a long time coming. I knew I could do it and no one can take that away from me.”
- Chad Dawson, New WBC light heavyweight titleholder, February 3, 2007, post-title win.
There’s something to be said about belief in one’s self. The creed that takes one higher than one’s ever been lifted before…Damn, was that Jackie Wilson up in the proverbial heezy?...
Chad Dawson’s Creed is merely the continuance of the renaissance of the upper weight classes introduced by Jermain Taylor himself. Beating Tomasz Adamek was Dawson’s all-access pass into the light heavies such as beating Hopkins was Taylor’s. Are we finally getting what we asked for when considering the incessant belly-aching we’ve been responsible for since we elected to ‘keep up with The (Roy) Joneses’?
Y’ know what? Yeah. We are. It’s now time to sit back in awe and enjoy it.
Damn, it’s good to be wrong!
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