by David P. Greisman

Reporters waited to talk to former light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and current 175-pound contender Eleider Alvarez on Tuesday morning, only to find out that the media conference call had been canceled.

A little bit later, they learned why — Dawson hurt his shoulder while training for his July 29 bout with Alvarez, according to a press release from Groupe Yvon Michel, which is promoting the card.

Dawson-Alvarez was due to take place underneath the Premier Boxing Champions broadcast on Spike TV in Quebec City featuring a main event of light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson vs. Thomas Williams Jr.

Michel is seeking a replacement opponent for Dawson so that Alvarez can still appear on the card.

Dawson won the lineal championship in 2012 with a victory over Bernard Hopkins, only to drop down to super middleweight and be stopped by Andre Ward. He then lost the championship in his next fight after that, in 2013, when Stevenson stopped Dawson in a little more than a minute. 

It has been a rocky road for Dawson since then. A win over George Blades was followed by a surprising split decision loss to Tommy Karpency in 2014. Since then, Dawson outpointed Shujaa El Amin and scored a technical knockout of Cornelius White. The 34-year-old is 34-4 with 19 KOs.

Alvarez, 32, is 19-0 with 10 KOs. He is coming off a majority decision win over Isaac Chilemba.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com