By Cliff Rold - There are plenty of guys with belts in boxing. There are only a handful of fighters who stand out as the legitimate World Champions of their class. Two of them, World Super Middleweight (168 lbs.) Champion Andre Ward and World Light Heavyweight Champion (175 lbs.) Chad Dawson, will lock horns this Saturday night at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
In terms of the scale, this isn’t anything fans aren’t used to. In an era where pound-for-pound gets more run than it merits, and fighters pack careers into lower volumes of significant fights, there is almost an expectation that fighters will move up the scale in search of new challenges. After Andre Ward finished his run in the Super Six Super Middleweight tournament, winning two alphabet straps and reestablishing the lineage of his division left vacant by Joe Calzaghe, one could assume the clock was ticking.
So, it is no surprise that Ward will be moving up to…
…wait…
…scratch that.
That’s now what’s happening.
The title on the line this weekend does not belong to the bigger man. When he laid down the gauntlet to Ward, Dawson said he’d be willing to come down the scale. Ward liked those terms. After some early speculation that both men would put their titles on the line, we instead have the man from the larger class challenging the smaller for his crown. [Click Here To Read More]
In terms of the scale, this isn’t anything fans aren’t used to. In an era where pound-for-pound gets more run than it merits, and fighters pack careers into lower volumes of significant fights, there is almost an expectation that fighters will move up the scale in search of new challenges. After Andre Ward finished his run in the Super Six Super Middleweight tournament, winning two alphabet straps and reestablishing the lineage of his division left vacant by Joe Calzaghe, one could assume the clock was ticking.
So, it is no surprise that Ward will be moving up to…
…wait…
…scratch that.
That’s now what’s happening.
The title on the line this weekend does not belong to the bigger man. When he laid down the gauntlet to Ward, Dawson said he’d be willing to come down the scale. Ward liked those terms. After some early speculation that both men would put their titles on the line, we instead have the man from the larger class challenging the smaller for his crown. [Click Here To Read More]
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