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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

 

May 9, 2009

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino-Las Vegas, Nevada

 

 

 

This match was originally scheduled for March 14, but had to be pushed back, because Dawson suffered a minor injury to his left hand in training. Dawson would have been ready to go in early April. However, HBO wanted the match to be held this day so they could air it with the replay of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton match from the week before.

 

 

 

IBO/IBF Light Heavyweight (175 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Chad Dawson (27-0, 1 NC, 17 KO's, 175 pounds) (c) vs. Antonio Tarver (27-5, 19 KO's, 172 pounds) II

 

Dawson won both of these titles in his last match. On October 11, 2008 at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Dawson took these titles from Tarver by winning a wide 12-round unanimous decision. Showtime had been positioning this match-up of young lion vs. aging veteran for over a year. Dawson defeated the current Ring 200-pound champion Tomasz Adamek to win a major title at 175 pounds on February 3, 2007. Dawson's next match was a title defense underneath a Tarver match on June 9, 2007. Dawson won his match impressively and was then shown in the stands watching Tarver win a lackluster 12-round majority decision against Elvir Mruiqi.

 

Dawson and Tarver would be paired up on the same card 1 more time, before their inevitable show down. On April 12, 2008 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, Dawson narrowly defeated Glen Johnson in an exciting match via 12-round unanimous decision. In the main event, Tarver was once again underwhelming. He did very little to win an easy unanimous decision against Englishman Clinton Woods. Woods appeared to be jet-lagged during the match, and Tarver appeared to be trying to match Woods' sluggish pace.

 

When Dawson and Tarver boxed the first time, it was clear why Tarver continually looked worse then Dawson. Dawson is a lot better then Tarver. The younger boxer displayed handspeed that Tarver could not come close to matching. Dawson was having such an easy time with Tarver that he began to toy with the veteran in round 6. After winning round 5 in dominating fashion, Dawson decided to let Tarver win round 6. Dawson would dare Tarver to hit him. Tarver would then throw a combination and Dawson would not punch back. The free punches Tarver landed had no effect on Dawson. However, the effort Tarver used to throw all those ineffective punches had him completely gassed by the end of the round. Dawson then finished the match in style by knocking down a desperate Tarver in round 12. A full recap to that match, which includes links to the June 9, 2007 event and April 12, 2008 event can be found here:  http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/5/7/recap-of-chad-dawson-vs-antonio-tarver-i.html

 

Dawson had a solid amateur boxing career that peaked when he won a silver medal at the 2001 world championships.

 

HBO heavily over paid to get this match on their network, because they believe Dawson is a rising star in boxing. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was in the crowd at Dawson-Tarver I and said that in his absence, Dawson was the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. With all of this hype, HBO paid a $3.2 million broadcast fee for this match/ The key feature being that this will be the first time they have ever broadcast a Dawson match and they will get to broadcast Dawson's next match. However to put in perspective how ridiculously HBO overpaid for this match, Dawson-Tarver I had a paid gate of less then 1000 fans. The casino heavily papered to make the crowd look respectable. This match has garnered less interest then that match did.

 

Dawson is The Ring magazine's number 2 contender at 175 pounds to their vacant championship in the weight class.

 

Tarver had an outstanding amateur boxing career that climaxed when he took home the bronze medal for the United States in the 178-pound division at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

 

Tarver turned pro at the relatively advanced age of 28-years, and has boxed very infrequently as a pro to extend his career. Tarver took an infamous 8-month hiatus from the ring to film Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI). The Floridian returned the ring calling himself a boxer and an actor to be dominated in losing a wide unanimous decision to Bernard Hopkins on June 10, 2006 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Tarver has not appeared to be nearly as good a boxer since he left to film Rocky Balboa as he was before he filmed the movie.

 

The challenger is getting this rematch, because there was a rematch clause in the contract from the first match. There is little expectation in the boxing community for this match to go any differently from the first match. However, Tarver's biggest source of confidence in this match is that he is 4-0 in rematches. The only loss on Tarver's record he has not been able to avenge is the one to Hopkins. That is because there has never been a rematch.

 

Tarver is The Ring's number 4 contender at 175 pounds.

 

At 26-years old, Dawson has a 14 year age advantage over the 40-year-old Tarver. Both boxers are 6' 2" tall. Both boxers have a 25" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist. Tarver will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 185 pounds approaching match time. The champion has unofficially rehydrated to 184 pounds approaching match time. Dawson is naturally right-handed, but both boxers will box out of the southpaw stance.

 

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this match. Two of the judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Nevada and the other is from Canada. The referee is Robert Byrd. Harold Lederman will keeping HBO's unofficial scorecard for this event.

 

Dawson lands the cleaner punches to win round 1, 10-9. Tarver threw a lot of punches in round 1, but it appeared that none of them landed solidly. Lederman scores round 1 for Dawson, 10-9. In round 2, Dawson significantly out-lands Tarver to win the round on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Dawson lands several clean power punches to win round 3, 10-9. Tarver threw a lot more punches then Dawson in round 3. However, those extra punches were almost all blocked rendering Tarver's superior work rate inconsequential. After 3 rounds, Dawson leads on my scorecard, 30-27. Lederman scores round 3 for the busier Tarver, 10-9, but has Dawson leading on his scorecard after 3 rounds, 29-28.

 

Dawson had Tarver hurt in round 4, and the champion wins the round easily on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Round 5 was close, but Dawson dominated the last 1:30 of the round to win it, 10-9. The champion takes round 5 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. Dawson dominates Tarver in winning round 6, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-54. Tarver did not look old in being defeated by Dawson in their first match. In that match, Tarver simply looked like a boxer facing a superior opponent. Tonight Tarver looks old. He appears very slow and his punches appear to have very little power on them. Tarver is working hard. The HBO commentators keep talking about how motivated Tarver is. However, the veteran boxer has been completely ineffective in this match. Lederman score round 6 for Dawson, 10-9, and has Dawson ahead after 6 rounds, 59-55.

 

Round 7 was very close. Tarver appeared to hit Dawson with a few good punches in the final minute that may have hurt the champion. However, Dawson dominated the rest of the round, and responded to the hard combination from Tarver by going back on offense and landing several combination that had Tarver going backwards. That may have won round 7 for Dawson, 10-9. After round 7, Tarver asked his corner if he was winning. They told him yes, but it is doubtful that Tarver's corner believes that. Tarver takes round 7 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Very little happens in round 8, and Dawson may have barely done enough to win the round, 10-9. Lederman scores round 8 for Dawson, 10-9. Dawson landed a few good right hands to win round 9, 10-9, and Dawson leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 90-81. The champion wins round 9 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and is ahead on the Lederman scorecard after 9 rounds, 88-83.

 

In round 10, neither boxer appeared to land any clean punches, but Tarver wins the by being busier then Dawson, 10-9. After round 10, Tarver's trainer, Buddy McGirt, told his charge that he needed to win the next 2 rounds big. Tarver was told that he did not necessarily need a knockout, though. Lederman scores round 10 for Dawson, 10-9. Tarver uses his jab consistently enough to win round 11, 10-9. The challenger takes round 11 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Dawson increases his work rate to win round 12, 10-9, and win the match on my scorecard, 118-110. Lederman scores round 12 for Tarver, 10-9, but has Dawson winning the match on his scorecard, 116-112.

 

The official decision courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer is that the judges have scored the match: 117-111, 117-111, 116-112, all for the winner by unanimous decision, still undefeated and still the IBO and IBF Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, "Bad" Chad Dawson. The win moves Dawson to 28-0 with 1 no contest and 17 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final punchstat numbers have Dawson landing 209 of the 677 total punches he threw, for a 31% total connect percentage. Dawson landed 66 of the 285 jabs he threw, for a 23% jab connect percentage. Tarver landed 121 of the 749 total punches he threw, for a 16% total connect percentage. The vanquished challenger landed 45 of the 344 jabs he threw, for a terrible 13% jab connect percentage.

 

Dawson said in his post match interview that he has no preference of who to face next, except Glen Johnson. The champion made it clear he does not want to do a rematch with Johnson.

 

The champion was solid in this victory. Dawson was outstanding defensively, but only boxed in spurts. He appeared to run out of gas at the end allowing Tarver to win some of the final rounds. This has been a theme in Dawson's previous matches. That means Dawson needs to work much harder on his conditioning to reach the elite level. It is unclear who Dawson will face next. Dawson would like to face Hopkins or the retired Joe Calzaghe next. However, this match did nothing to make Dawson an attractive opponent for Hopkins or Calzaghe. Dawson will still be unable to draw money and is unlikely to provide the type of test that could motivate either boxer to leave their couch. The most obvious opponent for Dawson is a rematch with Johnson. If that match is off the table, the potential opponents for Dawson looks pretty bad. The top ranked boxer at 175 pounds that he would likely be willing to face is Hungarian title-holder Zsolt Erdei. That match would be nearly impossible market. Next on the list is Roy Jones, Jr., who would likely want no part of a boxer in his prime like Dawson. Then comes Clinton Woods. That match would be hard to market considering Woods was dominated by Tarver, who was just dominated twice by Dawson. It only gets worse from there.

 

This was probably Tarver's last significant main event. He now has the option to go the way of Roy Jones and main event PPV's from places like Boise, Idaho in an attempt to get a final title shot based on his name or retire. Tarver still has tremendous defense. However, his handspeed is gone. The boxer's years competing with the true top boxers in the division ended when he added dozens of pounds of cosmetic muscle to film Rocky Balboa nearly 4 years ago.

 

 

 

This match was boring. It is an easy skip.