Wins for Dawson, Diaz, Spinks and Ali

Boxing may have a new star and his name is Chad Dawson. A year ago, we identified Dawson as one of the top ten prospects in the sport, but there was no reason to expect that he'd be ready - this soon - to dominate a respected champion. Nevertheless, that's exactly what Dawson did in taking the WBC light heavyweight title from previously undefeated Tomasz Adamek. Dawson, a 24-year-old southpaw, displayed tremendous speed in sweeping the first nine rounds but was dropped briefly in the tenth by an Adamek right. Dawson fought a bit more conservatively the rest of the way but still walked away with a unanimous decision: 116-110, 117-109, 118-108.

Julio Diaz dropped the "interim" from his title when IBF lightweight champion Jesus Chavez was counted out early in round three after his right knee gave out and he was unable to continue. The bizarre ending - in what should have been an entertaining bout - was almost a carbon copy of Nicolay Valuev's recent heavyweight title defense in which challenger Jameel McCline also suffered a third-round knee injury without being hit and was counted out. This is only the latest in a string of injuries for Chavez who also carries the weight of the death of his last opponent, Leavander Johnson, who died shortly after their fight on Sept. 17, 2005.

While it was somewhat surprising that Showtime didn't include Cory Spinks' first defense of his junior middleweight title as part of its live telecast, it doesn't sound like fight fans missed much. The defensive-minded Spinks scored a unanimous decision (120-108, 120-108, 119-109) over defensive-minded mandatory challenger Rodney Jones, but the crowd - which wanted to see some action - booed from the fourth round on.

Elsewhere - in Johannesburg, South Africa - unbeated (and largely untested) Laila Ali needed less than a minute to destroy Gwendolyn O'Neil, who didn't belong in the same ring with Ali. While Ali appears genuinely talented, her career is going nowhere. Unless she's going to fight Ann Wolfe, who seems to be the only potentially competitive opponent available, Ali may as well hang up her gloves for good. How bad has it gotten? Ali had already beaten the 37-year-old O'Neil by third-round KO in 2004, so this latest win proved absolutely nothing whatsoever ... other than being the first women's professional boxing match in South Africa.