2008 Angry Fight Fan Boxing Awards

These are a little late compared to a lot of other sites, but I wanted to wait until the year was officially over before I put these up. My MMA ones will be up in a week or so. These are entirely my opinion and feel free to have a go at me in the comments section and I’ll happily debate any of my picks.

Fight of the Year- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez (March 1st).
Round of the Year- 4th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez.
Seriously if you haven’t see this fight go and see it. It’s one of my personal all-time favourite fights and considering that I’m very old school in my opinions and don’t let new fads change my picks too much that’s saying something. There’s only three fights in the last ten years that I consider up there with some of my more classic choices and this is one of them (along with Barrera-Morales I and Castillo-Corrales I). A lot of people overlook this trilogy because therse guys are only 122lbs which is complete crap. A lot of ‘fans’ say they don’t like the little guys, but seriously, where do you draw the line? If you will watch Featherweights whats the big deal with the 4lbs less for the Junior Feathers? Whats the big deal with the 21lbs to Minimumweight?
You’d all think I was crazy if I said I don’t watch anything below Cruiserweight because the next division is 25lbs smaller when those fights are usually the best yet people draw the line at other places and it’s crap. These guys in the lower classes fight just as hard, if not harder then the other guys and get little credit and anyone who has seen this fight knows exactly what I mean. These guys left it all in the ring and the action see-sawed throughout every round. Marquez got the better of the first six rounds including knocking Vazquez down in the 4th round only for Vazquez to get up and rock Marquez in return. The two then exchanged hard blows until the bell with both men getting rocked again in the final 30 seconds (youtube clip provided below). Vazquez came back to steal the fight with a 12th round knockdown, winning a split decision. There was about six or seven rounds that could have gone either way (if you scored all of them for one fighter you’re a moron I might add) and everytime I’ve watched this fight I’ve scored a few rounds different. This truly was one of the greatest fights of all-time and if you haven’t watched it, go find someone who has a copy of it and check it out. Here’s a taste and my pick for round of the year:

Honourable Mentions (Fight of the Year)- Antonio Margarito TKO11 Miguel Cotto (July 26th), Manny Pacquiao SD12 Juan Manuel Marquez (March 15th), Joel Casmayor TKO10 Michael Katsidis (March 22nd).
Previous Winners- Israel Vazquez TKO6 Rafael Marquez (2007), Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo.
Honourable Mentions (Round of the Year)- 1st- Kendall Holt KO1 Ricardo Torres, 12th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez, 2nd- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto.
Previous Winners- 3rd- Rafael Marquez TKO7 Israel Vazquez (2007), 10th- Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), 10th- Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo (2005).

Fighter of the Year- Manny Pacquiao
Performance of the Year- Manny Pacquiao TKO8 Oscar De La Hoya (December 6th).

I have to admit, I was setting this article up in late November and I had Calzaghe pencilled in to the Fighter of the Year slot expecting De La Hoya to be too big for ’The Mexecutioner’ (sorry to any Mexicans reading this but I just love that name) and Pacquiao’s performance against David Diaz down for Performance of the Year (although that was a toss-up between it and Hopkins schooling of Pavlik). Even though I made a big deal that his fight with Oscar would do nothing to his legacy should be lose, a SD over Marquez that I thought he lost and a TKO over David Diaz who I don’t rate and a loss aren’t enough to outdo Calzaghe’s downing of two legends despite one of them being more shot then Oscar. Despite plenty of people calling Oscar shot after their fight, Pacquiao definately shouldn’t have won that fight in such a one sided fashion unless he was the real deal. Despite Marquez giving Pacquiao all he could handle in their March thriller, Pacquiao proved that making 130lbs probably had something to do with it  after twice moving up in weight and one sidedly knocking out two very capable fighters. So for winning new World titles in two weight divisions in 12 months and for completely dominating two very good fighters (one of them a legend) and beating a fellow top five pound for pound fighter, Pacquiao wins two of my awards this year.
Honourable Mentions (Fighter of the Year)- Joe Calzaghe, Antonio Margarito, Juan Manuel Marquez.
Previous Winners- Floyd Mayweather Jnr (2007), Manny Pacquiao (2006), Jermain Taylor (2005).
Honourable Mentions (Performance of the Year)-  Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz, Bernard Hopkins UD12 Kelly Pavlik, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares.
Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton KO4 Jose Luis Castillo (2007), Joe Calzaghe UD12 Jeff Lacy (2006), Floyd Mayweather jnr TKO6 Arturo Gatti (2005).

Knockout of the Year- Juan Urango KO4 Carlos Vilches
When it comes to knockouts, I find it best to explain it by just showing it! Enjoy!

Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito KO6 Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley KO12 Ricardo Mayorga, Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz.
Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Daniel Ponce de Leon KO1 Sod Looknongyangtoy (2006), Allan Green KO1 Jaidon Codrington (2005).

Upset of the Year- Nate Campbell SD12 Juan Diaz
No one seemed to be able to touch Diaz in the lightweight division and not many expected him to be beaten until he moved up a weight division. This fight was somewhat overshadowed with David Haye’s unification fight with Enzo Maccarinelli as well as Oleg Maskaev’s defence of his WBC Heavyweight strap against dangerous contender Samuel Peter (the fight was on the undercard of this bout). Campbell had won three in a row in his hot and cold career that has seen him look like one of the World’s most dangerous fighters one day and look like a complete fool the next (see Campbell-Peden I). Diaz seemed to be taking over as he usually does by the midway point of the fight with his high output of punches although Campbell stayed in the pocket with him and traded hard leather. Everything changed with one punch in the 6th round. Campbell landed a left that opened a massive cut on Diaz’s left eye and although the referee incorrectly ruled it a headbutt and docked Campbell a point, Diaz wasn’t the same fighter after that. His punch output slowed down while Campbell was spurred on by the cut and the rare weakness that Diaz ever shows in the ring. Campbell dominated the later rounds as Diaz’s eye closed shut and he took a split decision as well as Diaz’s WBA, WBO and IBF Lightweight titles.
Honourable Mentions- Carlos Quintana UD12 Paul Williams, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares, Breidis Prescott KO1 Amir Khan.
Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Carlos Baldomir UD12 Zab Judah (2006), Zahir Raheem UD12 Erik Morales. 

Event of the Year- Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez
(By this I basically mean the biggest fight of the year without taking into account what actually happened in the ring. For example there were far better fights in 2002 then Lewis-Tyson, but that one was the highlight event of the year).
I really didn’t buy into De La Hoya-Pacquiao (as many who have read this site for a while will tell you) and I really can’t think of another fight that was as good a match-up as this one. I tend to go more for a hardcore fans perspective when picking these unless there’s an obvious pick like Lewis-Tyson or De La Hoya-Hopkins. This fight pitted the two best fighters in the 130-126lb division in a fight that had a long build up after their controversial draw in 2004. It was the culmination in a series of big fights between these two plus Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera that saw this fight as the Finale after Marquez defeated Barrera (Pacquiao also defeated him after Marquez) and Pacquiao had defeated Morales. It was sort of like Hagler-Leonard of the 80′s rivalry of those two plus Duran and Hearns although over a shorter period of time. There were plenty of big fights and one’s that received a lot more attention then this fight, but this was the fight I looked forward to the most this year. It was two top five pound for pound fighters squaring off and the fight didn’t disappoint.
Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor II, Vic Darchinyan vs Cristian Mijares. (I don’t rate Calzaghe-Hopkins because even though it was a big fight, I knew it’d be as boring as all fuck as it actually was).
Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton vs Floyd Mayweather jnr (2007), Joe Calzaghe vs Jeff Lacy (2006), Ricky Hatton vs Kostya Tszyu (2005).

That’s the big ones out of the road, a few I think I should touch on:

Prospect of the Year- Leonard Zappavinga
First of all, I think this award is stupid. It’s not like in other sports where it’s easy to determine what a prospect is because they’ve only been playing a year. Boxing is a different sport. A prospect could be a three fight rookie or a guy with 30 fights who’s taken his time on the way up and is about to crack the big time. Second of all, I’m clearly biased. I don’t take this award that seriously so I’ll probably always pick an Australian. Zappavinga ended his year with a knockout over former two time world title challenger Tommy Browne in a fight he looked excellent in. Zappa is only 22, he is undefeated and will definately be one to watch in the new year.

Australian Fighter of the Year- Vic Darchinyan
Darchinyan totally dominated two world champions with absolute ease in his new weight class and became the first Australian since Kostya Tszyu to be near the top 10 pound for pound in the World. After a controversial draw in February against Z Gorres, Darchinyan got a shot at Dimitri Kirilov’s IBF strap and won by one sided 5th round knockout. After that came a unification bout with (at least by my list) Cristian Mijares, who held the WBC and WBA titles and had wins over Jorge Arce and Alexander Munoz. Not many (I wasn’t one of them) gave Darchinyan a chance, but he brutalised Mijares over nine rounds with a great mixture of boxing and punching before knocking him out with an overhand left in the 9th. I just hope Darchinyan receives more credit and attention down here instead of joke ‘fighters’ like Anthony Mundine and John Hopoate who rob the public blind with their overpriced PPV sideshows.

One to watch in 2009- Beibut Shumenov
This guy is only 7-0, but he has already beaten Montell Griffin (yes, the same one with a win over Roy Jones jnr) and Epifanio Mendoza (who gave Jeff Lacy all he could handle for 12 rounds).

And some lighter ones:

Arthur Mercante Award for Best Refereeing- Pat Russell (Vazquez-Marquez III)
This was by far the best fight of the year and it could have been one of the most controversial if referee Pat Russell was having a bad night. There were several tight calls in the fight that the fight road on, and he got them all right. Russell deducted a point from Marquez for a low blow which ultimately cost Marquez a draw in the fight, however he had previously warned Marquez a number of times and had to take that point off. Had he let Marquez off the hook there it would have been unfair to Vazquez as he had warned him a few times previously and most of the shots were pretty low. The other call was the 12th round knockdown. Russell very well could have made the mistake that many a referee would have made in that situation and stopped the fight. Marquez was taking punishment on the ropes and taking a lot of it yet he wasn’t going down. He staggered into the ropes and would have fallen if they weren’t there and instead of stopping the fight he gave Marquez a count. These calls are still controversial parts of the fight, but they would have been a hell of a lot worse if Russell had say jumped in and saved Marquez in the 12th with a few seconds left.

Jersey Joe Walcott Award for Worst Refereeing- Joe Cortez (Francisco Lorenzo DQ4 Humberto Soto)
(If you don’t get the reference it’s not because I hate Walcott, it’s because he refereed one Heavyweight title fight and lost complete control of the Ali-Liston rematch therefore he gets my award named after him. I actually am a big fan of Walcott so this is no cheap shot at him about his fighting, just thought I’d point that out).
Humberto Soto battered Franciso Lorenzo for three and a half rounds before dropping him in the fourth round. While going down, Lorenzo grabbed Soto’s legs prompting Soto to continue to hit him, landing a grazing shot to the back of his head. Instead of counting, Cortez ruled that Lorenzo had been hit while he was down at which point Lorenzo started faking like he was in more serious trouble as a result of the blow. Actually, Lorenzo was ready to go and all the damage was done by legal blows from Soto during the action. After viewing several replays, Cortez disqualified Soto and ruled Lorenzo as the new WBC interim champion. The WBC however would right the wrong and strip Lorenzo of his belt (one of the few controversial decisions from an ABC group that I agree with).

Eugenia Williams Award for Worst Judging Card- Doug Tucker (Cristian Mijares SD12 Jose Navarro)
(Reference again is to Eugenia Williams who scored the Holyfield-Lewis first fight to Holyfield after he won maybe three rounds).
Tucker scored this fight 120-108 for Navarro. The other two judges both saw it for Mijares in a close fight. Seriously Doug, what fight were you watching? Maybe Navarro won the fight (I agreed with the other two judges) but he didn’t win every round.

George Foreman Award for Comeback of the Year- Vitali Klitschko
If you come back from four years of inactivity and totally dominate one of the top contenders in your division then there’s no denying you this award. Vitali Klitschko did just that. It almost made my performance of the year honourable mentions but missed out. Klitschko came back from numerous injuries and totally dominated someone who was a very, very dangerous opponent with absolute ease. As much as I don’t like the Klitschko brothers, it was hard not to be impressed by that.

Andy Raymond Award for Worst Commentator of the Year- Andy Raymond (Fox Sports Australia)
I seriously hate Andy Raymond and it’ll be a task for anyone to win this award any year apart from him. He just talks and talks and talks without ever saying anything with the slightest bit of meaning. The only Raymondism I can remember this year (if I remembered anymore I’d probably get cancer) is this:
‘Boxing under the Nitro Format this evening’
WTF does that mean?!?!?!?! At the time he was referring to the promotion as being called Nitro Fight Night or some shit, but what he actually said has zero meaning to anyone with an IQ above 50! Maybe it’s just me who gets irritated by things like this, but seriously if you’re on TV and your job is to talk you really need to know how to do it. Another thing that annoys me about him is his constant comment everytime a boxer from New South Wales fights a boxer from Queensland he calls it state of origin. On some cards when this happens four or five times he says it every fucking time. Its no wonder that boxing is seen by a lot of people in Australia as a sideshow sport that Rugby League players play to keep themselves fit in the off season when you have some moronic Rugby League commentator who knows fuckall about the sport making absolutely no sense with anything he says except when he says something that he can relate back to Rugby League like the state of origin shit.

John Ruiz Award for Worst Fight of the Year- Wladimir Klitschko UD12 Sultan Ibragimov
Now this isn’t exactly the worst fight of the year, but it’s the worst one I saw that I went out of my way to watch. Ibragimov ran for dear life and Wladimir was too shit scared of being knocked out to do anything about it. The result was Wladimir winning the fight on his aggressive pawing of his jab. Valuev-Holyfield sounds worse, but you’ll have to pin my eyes open A Clockwork Orange style to get me to watch that. Bringing me to my next award:

Ruiz-McCline Award for Worst Matchup of the Year- John Ruiz vs Jameel McCline
This award was originally going to be called the Ruiz-Holyfield Award out of respect for the worst boxing trilogy of all-time, then I remembered he fought McCline this year and the award will be now known as Ruiz-McCline. Now I didn’t see this fight (which is why I haven’t gouged out my eyes with a toothpick) but oh my God, who ever thought these two would make for attractive viewing needs to jab themselves in the eye with a screwdriver. Has there ever been two more boring Heavyweights? At least Wladimir Klitschko has punching power that can sometimes be exciting. These two not only have extremely boring styles, but they’re very ineffective fighters who often resort to holding. If I was managing Ruiz, after I committed suicide I’d do everything I could to keep him away from the likes of McCline who is just a fat waste of space with enough gas to punch for maybe three rounds. Matching these two up only shows the full range of boredom they can produce. Luckily I didn’t have to sit through this bout as Haye-Maccarinelli was live on one channel and by the time it had finished so had this piece of shit bit of matchmaking.

Joe Jacobs ‘We was Robbed ‘ Award for Robbery of the Year- Nicolay Valuev W12 Evander Holyfield
(Joe Jacobs managed Max Schemling in the 1930s and had a famous quote ‘We was robbed, we shouldda stayed in bed’ after Schmeling lost the title to Sharkey).
I haven’t seen the fight and I don’t want to, but the whole thing is just cruel. Here’s a legend of the ring who’s battled way past his prime in a quest to re-capture the Heavyweight title before he retires and after years of not getting anywhere near it he finally gets a shot and by all accounts should have won the fight and they rob him. Now it’s probably for the good of the division that Holyfield doesn’t win the fight and ends up being killed in the ring if he puts it against one of the Klitschko’s, but to rob a man of being the first five-time champion as well as the oldest champion in history is just cruel.

And on a sadder note:

Gone but not forgotten
(pictured in order below, if I left anyone out leave a comment and I’ll edit it)
Yo Sam Choi- Former WBC 108lb Champion (1999-2002), lost his title to Jorge Arce in 2002. Died from injuries sustained in a fight he won in December 2007 a week later.
Duilio Loi- Two-time World Junior Lightweight Champion (1960-62 and 1963), bested the great Carlos Ortiz 2-1 in their series of fights. Lost the title to Eddie Perkins in 1962 then regained it in his next fight and retired with a 115-3-8 mark. Died in January of Alzheimers.
Ralph Dupas- Former World Junior Middleweight Champion (1963), also challenged Emile Griffith for the Welterweight Championship and Joe Brown for the Lightweight Championship. Defeated former World Middleweight Champion Joey Giardello and lost a disputed decision to  Sugar Ray Robinson. Died in January of dememtia.
Mando Ramos- Former Undisputed Lightweight Champion (1969-70) who regained the WBC title in 1972 but lost it the same year. Lost his undisputed title to Panamanian great Ismael Laguna. Died in July of natural causes.
Mate Parlov- 1972 Olympic Light Heavyweight Champion, 1974 World Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion, WBC Light Heavyweight Champion (1978). First Croatian to win a World title in Boxing. Died in July 30 of lung cancer.
Vic Toweel- Former World Bantamweight Champion (1950-52). First South African to win a World Championship in Boxing by defeating Manuel Ortiz. Lost his title to Australian Jimmy Carruthers in 1952. Died in August at age 80.
Joey Giardello- Former World Middleweight Champion (1963-65). Fought Dick Tiger four times (winning twice) and also beat Sugar Ray Robinson and Rubin Carter to name a few. Died in September of heart failure.

Yo-Sam Choi (1972-2008)

Duilio Loi (1929-2008)

Ralph Dupas (1935-2008)

Mando Ramos (1948-2008)

Mate Parlov (1948-2008)

Vic Toweel (1928-2008)

Joey Giardello (1930-2008)

Klitschko destroys Peter, Dawson defeats Tarver

These are late, I’ve been busy with real life commitments. I should be posting a whole bunch of stuff in the coming days on this weekends fights. Also, some of my stuff will now be appearing on a new site; www.fight-scene.com 

Vitali Klitschko TKO8 Samuel Peter
Wow! Klitschko made his comeback after four years on the sidelines and numerous serious injuries and battered the guy who in my opinion was the 2nd best heavyweight on the planet in a one sided affair. Klitschko never let Peter in the fight and repeatedly tagged him with his monsterous right hand until Peter quit after the 8th round. Peter didn’t look like he belonged in the ring with Vitali.
Despite all the Vitali praise, Peter’s style was always the right one for Vitali. He has slow movement and little head movement and the fight was always going to be decided on what Vitali showed up. Its hard to find any fault in that performance at all. The one thing that I did notice about Klitschko was that he was gasping for air a lot during the fight, but that is to be expected when you come off the sidelines after four years and fight one of the best heavyweight boxers in the World. I doubt this will be a serious problem in future fights because he has those eight rounds under his belt now and the next time he fights he’ll find it easier because of this.
This fight makes me hope that Alexander Povetkin defeats Wladimir Klitschko all the more. If Povetkin wins that fight, Vitali is very likely to want to avenge that loss for his brother. Add to that the fact that Wlad won’t hold a belt as well and that thought makes me very happy as his last two fights have been disgustingly boring. Vitali-Povetkin for three of the four titles is the sort of thing the heavyweight division needs to bring the division back from the slump its in. With Wlad holding the other belts, we’re not going to get unification for a while. First of all though Vitali has to defend against former WBC Cruiserweight Champion (who is now a part time Heavyweight contender) Juan Carlos Gomez. Gomez has a style that could cause the unorthodox Klitschko problem, but he has far from the substance required to make the most of any stylistic advantages he has. Hopefully Vitali stays healthy and keeps busy and gets Gomez out of the way ASAP so we can see him fight one of the other titlists.

Chad Dawson UD12 Antonio Tarver
Chad Dawson dethroned IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Antonio Tarver via one sided unanimous decision last weekend as well. Dawson used superior handspeed and aggression to outwork the 37 year old Tarver over the 12 rounds. The dominant display was punctuated by a 12th round knockdown. Dawson added the IBF title to the WBC title he rightfully owns (he lost this title because he chose to fight Tarver over the Interim ‘champion’ Adrian Diaconu and the WBC don’t actually care about the state of boxing, just lining their pockets) with scores of 117-110 twice and 118-109.
If there were any doubts that Dawson belongs with the elite in this division they were put to rest in this fight. Still, I don’t think he’s ready for Joe Calzaghe. What Dawson should do is, like I said last weekend, give Glenn Johnson a rematch. That fight was very close (I thought Johnson won by 2 points from memory) and its a fight that Dawson will gain more experience from. If he doesn’t fight Johnson, I think he should either face Adrian Dianconu and sort that mess out or do me a favour and take the Linear title from WBO champ Zsolt Erdei so I can stop going to bat for him everytime that subject comes up. With the top guys in this division nearing retirement, Dawson is what the division needs as he is young, good and willing to fight the best guys available.

Boxing Breakdown (October 11th)

Well I got my first piece of hate mail this week. ‘Mr Jones’ as he calls himself told me that my headlines suck and recommended that instead of using ‘Mayorga vs Mosley Predictions’ I should use something catchier like ‘Boxing Breakdown.’ Now normally I’d flame this idiot but I was tired and he was probably right so if you read this Mr Jones, there you go I changed the name. If anyone else would like to send me hate mail or any other kind of non-virus mail send it to this E-mail address (you’ll have to remove the space because my E-mail gets enough junk as it is) angryfightfan@ hotmail.com.
There’s two good fights on this weekend, and the kind people in charge of what gets shown in Australia have opted to show neither of them. For some reason some gaming PPV has been shown instead. In my opinion its bad enough that Professional Wrestling gets shown on the same PPV channel that the boxing and MMA get shown on (well I actually think its bad enough that most boxing is on PPV but thats another story for another day), but then throw in moronic shows like Jerry Springer Uncut and this crap thats on instead of the boxing this weekend and it really makes me wonder who’s in charge? The thing that really pisses me off though is that Sky hasn’t picked either fight up when there are plenty of people who would be interested in watching this fight. Anyway enough bitching, more boxing.

Vitali Klitschko vs Samuel Peter
(WBC Heavyweight Title)
Vitali Klitschko comes out of a three year retirement and a four year absence from the ring to take on WBC heavyweight Champion Samuel Peter. Klitschko hasn’t fought since butchering Mike Tyson conqueror Danny Williams in December of 2004. The WBC were kind enough to let give Vitali another shot at the title when he came back despite him pulling out of his last four fights with injuries (three of them being mandatory defences against their #1 contender Hasim Rahman).
This fight basically boils down to what Klitschko has left. He hasn’t fought in four years and he’s had numerous injuries in that time. The thing that concerns me about picking Vitali is that I wonder how many shortcuts he’s had to take in training to not get injured for this fight? Add to that his already questionable stamina (not as questionable as Wlad’s but its still been dodgey in the past) and I’m not sure what Vitali will be able to do if Peter makes this the fight he wants.
The Vitali of 2004 would have killed Peter in my opinion. He’d just spear him with those long straight punches of his until he falls down. If Vitali can turn back the clock he’ll win this fight. I don’t think he can. It’s been four years since he fought and he’s jumping in with someone as dangerous as Samuel Peter. His reflexes will have diminished and I don’t think he’ll take a punch as good as he did those years ago. I think it’ll be a competitive fight for 2-3 rounds before Peter just starts teeing off on him and wins either a lopsided decision or a late stoppage. For the sake of heavyweight boxing I hope Peter knocks him out. By that I mean that the division is in a worse state then we thought if a fighter can comeback after a four year retirement and whip one of the top guys in his first fight back.

Chad Dawson vs Antonio Tarver
(IBF Light Heavyweight Title)
IBF champion Antonio Tarver defends his belt against former WBC champion Chad Dawson in this interesting Light Heavyweight matchup. Dawson had his title stripped for fighting one of the best fighters in the division and not fighting Adrian Diaconu. Now this wasn’t the worst decision in the World, but the sanctioning bodies really have to work out some sort of agreement in terms of unification fights. Boxing will remain in a mess as long as they strip their champions every time a unification fight takes place. Instead of moving one step closer to finding out who the best in the division is, we end up back at square one.
This fight is youth vs experience. Tarver has looked hot and cold in his recent fights but this is a fight that I think stylistically suits him. Tarver has had his most problems with guys who he couldn’t hit cleanly like Bernard Hopkins and Glenn Johnson. Dawson I think will be there for him to hit and he can use his ring generalship to frustrate the younger man and wear him out much like Glenn Johnson did. On the other hand, if Dawson can get his punches off without getting countered too often early on, he’ll drag Tarver into the sort of fight tarver doesn’t like and wear him down. I’m again going with the underdog in Tarver (who for some reason is 3-1 down here) and I think he’ll frustrate Dawson on his way to a wide points win. Whoever wins this fight, I think either of them owes Glenn Johnson another fight.