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Showtime Championship Boxing Recap

September 29, 2007

Arco Arena-Sacramento, California

WBC Light Heavyweight (175 pounds) 12 Round Championship Match:

Chad Dawson (24-0 (1 NC), 16 KO's, 172.75 pounds) (c) vs. Espifanio Mendoza (28-4-1, 24 KO's, 175 pounds)

Dawson won this championship from Tomasz Adamek on February 3, 2007 via 12 round unanimous decision.  This is Dawson's second defense of this title.

Dawson was born in Hartsville, South Carolina, and now lives in New Haven, Connecticut.  He has fast hands, but questionable defense.  Dawson tends to drop his hands, and has been knocked down several times, particularly by good right hands.  Dawson has changed trainers to Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, after working with "Trainer of Champions" Floyd Mayweather, Sr. for his last 2 matches.

Dawson has faced increasing competition with the hope of getting a match with Antonio Tarver down the line.  The only blemish on Dawson's record is the no contest.  It came after Dawson had defeated Aundalen Sloan via 6 round unanimous decision on March 27, 2004 at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.  The decision was changed when Dawson failed a post match test for marijuana.  The commission suspended Dawson for 6 months.  Dawson says the public embarrassment refocused him.  The champion has not had any public problems, since then.

Dawson is the number 5 ranked contender by The Ring Magazine to their champion, Bernard Hopkins at 175 pounds.

Mendoza is a native of Colombia, and continues the event's theme of title challengers brought in to lose.  He is a late replacement coming in on 12 days notice after scheduled challenger Adrian Diaconu withdrew with an injured hand.  A few days before being called in to replace Diaconu, Mendoza hired to train him Yoel Judah, the father of Zab Judah.  There may be some problems here however, because Mendoza understands some English, but does not speak it.  Judah does not speak Spanish, which could lead to communication problems in the corner.

The challenger qualified for this replacement title shot by beating a string of embarrassingly weak opposition.  The challenger has amassed 15 of his 28 wins against opponents who were winless when they faced him.  Mendoza has not defeated an opponent with a winning record, since September 25, 2004.  In that time, Mendoza has competed in the professional boxing ring 10 times.  The challenger went 8-2 in those matches, with the 2 losses to the only 2 opponents with a winning record he faced.

Mendoza's last match was an 8 round unanimous decision victory over William Johnson on July 20, 2007 at the Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida.  Johnson had a record of 9-13-1 with 1 no contest entering the match, and was 2-9 in his last 11 matches.

Mendoza is unranked by The Ring Magazine, and ranked 67 among boxers at 175 pounds by boxrec.com.

Dawson holds the age advantage at 25-years-old, compared to Mendoza who is 31-years-old.  Mendoza has the height advantage standing 6' 1.5" tall, while Dawson is 6' 1" tall.  The challenger has the reach advantage with a wingspan of 79" long, and the Connecticut resident has a 76.5" wingspan.  The boxers' unofficial weights approaching match time are unavailable.  The champion though naturally right handed boxes out of the southpaw stance to emulate his father's style, who boxed as a southpaw during a short professional boxing career.  The challenger will employ the orthodox stance.

The rules are the same as the previous match.  The referee is Joe Schorle.  The judges are from Nevada, California, and England.

Dawson comes to the ring wearing a Randy Couture T-shirt, under his ring jacket.

Dawson wins round 1, 10-9.  The champion wins round 2, 10-9.  Mendoza was nearly finished at the end of round 3 and forced to hold on to survive the round.  Dawson wins round 3, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27.

The doctor talked to the referee between rounds 3 and 4, and told the referee to not hesitate to stop the match if Mendoza gets in to any trouble.  Mendoza has taken a lot of punishment, primarily from Dawson's right hook. Dawson has Mendoza pinned up against the ropes with 1:10 to go in round 4, and Mendoza is in real trouble.  After Dawson unleashes a sustained offensive effort, with Mendoza still standing against the ropes, the referee moves in to stop the match with 31 seconds to go in round 4.

The official decision as read by the always "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. is that:  2:30 into round 4 the referee has called a stop to this contest, making the winner by technical knockout, still undefeated, and still WBC Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, "Bad" Chad Dawson.  The win moves Dawson to 25-0 with 1 no contest, and 17 of his wins coming by way of knockout.

Dawson said in his post match interview he did what he was supposed to do.  The champion still wants a dream match with Tarver.

The official judges score cards after 3 rounds had it unanimously for Dawson: 30-27, 30-27, 29-28.  It is hard to justify giving any of the first 3 rounds to Mendoza, which makes that last score confusing.

This was a glorified sparring session for Dawson, and he looked very good in the outing.  His defense was outstanding, and his punching was accurate.  It was a technical boxing gem from Dawson.  Dawson will have to wait for a match with Tarver, who is scheduled to face Danny Green on December 1, 2007 on the final Showtime Championship Boxing event of the year.  The earliest Tarver would reasonably agree to face Dawson is April, and with a strong chance Tarver would want to wait until June to compete, again.  Dawson will need to take a match in the interim, which will likely be Diaconu.  The Connecticut resident could also, easily move down to 168 pounds for matches with Mikkel Kessler and Joe Calzaghe in Europe.  Dawson may want to eventually move down to 168 pounds eventually, anyway based on how easily he made weight for this match.

Mendoza will go back to facing soft opposition, and should do well there.