Super middleweight champ Andre Ward retained his WBA and WBC belts with a dominating 10th round TKO of WBC light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson. Ward neutralized Dawson from the second round on and dropped the larger Dawson in rounds three, four and ten. After the knockdown in round ten, Dawson rose to his feet but told referee Steve Smoger he did not want to continue. Ward was ahead on the cards 90-79 and 89-80 twice at the time of the stoppage.
Ward fought more aggressively than usual -- especially once he realized he was quicker than Dawson and could land his left almost at will. Punch stats were remarkably one-sided with Ward landing 155 of 418 punches (37%) to just 29 of 187 (16%) for Dawson.
The 28-year-old Ward - who won Gold at the 2004 Olympics - is now 26-0 (14 KOs) and among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. After defeating Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch to win the Super Six super middleweight tournament and now stopping Chad Dawson, the big question is what does Ward do for an encore? A rematch with Froch? Move down to meet Sergio Martinez at a catchweight? Or move up to light heavyweight?
Comments
Hardly any mention of the way this fight ended.
Dawson was not counted out
The ref didn’t initiate the stoppage.
Dawsons corner didn’t stop the fight.
Ward didn’t stop the fight.
The doctor didn’t stop the fight.
There was no foul.
There was no injury.
No officials stopped the fight.
Who stopped the fight?
Wait until Ortiz’ jaw heals, and for his next contest see how often quit is leveled at him.
Even Ward said “I was surprised
The very disappointing performance of Chad Dawson was at once unexpected and almost sad. For whatever reason, Dawson was just not there to fight. Perhaps early on he realized he was just over matched with not much hope of victory, but even if this was the case, to allow himself to be so completely humiliated by Andre Ward is almost inexplicable. Certainly his corner could see the extent of Dawson’s inability to put up a fight and should have pulled the plug on the match rather than let their fighter absorb more and more punishment. One wonders if this will have a permanent impact on Dawson’s career. It would be a shame because he is a very talented fighter.
im doing a report on this boxer, and i was wondering if any can tell me more about him.