What an extraordinary night for Chad Dawson. He showed tremendous boxing skills, great hand speed, and ring savvy in beating Antonio Tarver. The win was made better by the fact that Tarver did not perform badly, just not well enough to beat Dawson on this night. The 39 year old Tarver couldn't deal with the speed of Dawson. And, Chad won the strategic battle by making Tarver come after him. Normally Tarver is more comfortable as the counter puncher.
For Dawson this sets up any number of interesting matches including the winner of the Roy Joners-Joe Calzage match or the winner of the Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopins match. There is a rematch clause in the Dawson-Tarver contract, so it is possible that these two men could meet again. Would that prospect be compelling enough for a network like Showtime to buy it, and would the fans want to see it? I'm not sure of the answers to those questions.
It was fun to present you with live coverage of this fight this weekend on the ABBC, both the weigh-in and pre and post fight coverage. I hope you enjoyed it. Our goal is to provide boxing fans with that kind of coverage at virtually all major fights. If you have comments on our coverage, feel free to chime in with those.
