by David P. Greisman
“He came out with that fire in his eyes that hadn’t been seen in a long time with Hopkins. … He’s going to come to every fight with that kind of intensity.” -John Scully
Chad Dawson was a middleweight and super middleweight prospect in his early 20s when John Scully first trained him. Several years passed. Several trainers came and went. And then Dawson reconnected with his fellow Connecticut resident.
A couple of months ago, Scully returned to Dawson’s corner to prepare him for a fight with Bernard Hopkins. Now he is working with a boxer who is 29 years old — a boxer who was once at the top of the light heavyweight division and who is now fighting to reclaim that position.
In this interview with BoxingScene.com, Scully talks about what he’s trying to bring Dawson through their training, what he saw from Dawson in previous fights and why he thinks boxing fans should buy into the idea of a rejuvenated, more intense “Bad Chad.”
BoxingScene.com: This was your first fight back with Chad Dawson. What were the differences between him now and when you last were in his corner?
Scully: “In many ways he was the same, and I mean that in a good way. He really, despite his new fame and the money — you know he’s rich and he’s won titles — but he’s still very, very, very teachable and coach-able and he listens and he wants to listen and wants to learn. He tried all the new things that I tell him. I was really impressed with that.
“There was one episode in the gym where he was getting hit with a particular punch more than he should. I showed him a little technique on how to avoid that. And he did it in the next sparring session so beautifully. He was just really ecstatic about learning this technique.
“I think that’s a good thing; he’s maintained that youthful enthusiasm about boxing. He’s stronger. He’s more mature, physically and mentally, than he was when I trained him before. I was really happy to be back with him. We mixed really well, I thought.”
BoxingScene.com: Had his technique developed or devolved after all these years?
Scully: “I think he’s still basically the same, but not in a bad way, because he was very, very good back in 2004 and 2005. Now all that’s been intensified and magnified with his man strength and his maturity that’s come into play now.”
BoxingScene.com: What else were you working on with Chad for him to improve?
Scully: “On his end, he wanted to get back to putting the jab out there. That was what he felt like he’d been lacking in recent years. He wanted to work on the jab more and get back to how he was jabbing before. That was the main thing. Naturally everything kind of flows off the jab, so he felt if he could get that back, then all the other things would come more naturally to him.”
BoxingScene.com: Chad had mentioned in other interviews that he’d felt bored in the ring in recent fights. How did you work to make sure he wouldn’t fall into that again?
Scully: “A lot of it was just me talking to him. We did a lot of discussions at night after the training. I would tell him, ‘You’re an elite fighter. You’re a pound-for-pound. You’re the guy you used to look up to when you were a kid. You’re the Roy Jones type of guy of your era. You’ve got to show that every time out. You’ve got kids now and you’ve got to advance your career to solidify your future.’
“One thing I always stressed to him, I said, ‘You’ve got to listen to your critics, because yr critics generally will be more truthful than your fans’ — by that I mean the fans who look at the good stuff and keep reassuring you about the good stuff. If a critic says, ‘I can’t stand that guy, he doesn’t throw enough punches,’ they’re probably telling the truth. They wouldn’t lie. I told him, ‘Don’t dismiss those people. Listen to what they’re saying and try to change their opinion.
“Sometimes trainers lie to their fighters to get something out of them. I really meant it, though, when I said that when he lets his hands go — and I showed him some videos of when he fought Tarver and Glen Johnson — I said ‘When you let your hands go in combination, and Mayweather lets his hands go, and Pacquiao lets his hands go, you’re the prettiest. Nobody throws seven or eight punches as fluidly and effortlessly as you do.’
“I said, ‘People want to see that more out of you. If you do, you’re gonna be their favorite fighter. You’re gonna be the guy people talk about.’
“You can look at any of Chad’s fights and see where he does let his hands go how beautiful and breathtaking it is sometimes. It reminds me of Roy Jones when Roy Jones was in his prime. I said, ‘And the critics are right. You just don’t do it enough, and if you did it more, you’d be a superstar. You’d be bigger than you are now. People wouldn’t criticize you. They wouldn’t have anything to criticize you about.’ ”
BoxingScene.com: What should come next for Chad?
Scully: “I don’t know much about the business end of things. I don’t know what fights are worth financially. I think the Hopkins fight might be on hold, I’m assuming, because Hopkins, if he is hurt, then he’d have to take time off. And if he’s not hurt, the image is that he is, so he’d have to take time off.
“My gut feeling is we’d probably fight [Jean] Pascal next. An ideal situation would probably be to put Chad and Pascal in for the interim title until Hopkins can defend it. Basically the winner of Chad and Pascal can fight Hopkins down the road.”
BoxingScene.com: Looking back at the fight between Chad and Pascal, what did you see in that fight that Chad did well and what did he need to improve on?
Scully: “As soon as the fight started, it was the first or second round, I literally turned to my wife and said ‘Chad’s not ready for the fight. He’s clearly not ready, just his mannerisms and his approach to the fight. I could see even by his facial expressions. I could tell that something wasn’t right.
“He wasn’t prepared for the speed of Pascal and the energy that Pascal brought. I considered it a very lackadaisical performance. He still came on and clearly was on his way to winning by a TKO. I think that’s pretty much widely accepted in the boxing world that it was about to end when the cut occurred, when the head butt occurred.
“On his worst night ever of his amateur and pro career, he actually showed something really great — that he could come from behind in a fight he was clearly losing. He was on the verge of winning. Grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat. He was going to do that. That’s not an easy thing to do. That’s very difficult. Only the greater fighters are able to do that, and he did that. I actually took a very positive spin out of that fight.”
BoxingScene.com: Do you think that was Pascal on his best night, and then we saw who Pascal really is when he fought Hopkins?
Scully: “Fighters get a sense of each other when they’re in the ring, and I think Pascal could sense maybe Chad wasn’t ready, and it boosted his confidence. He fought a very good fight. I give him credit for that.
“I think Hopkins clearly got in Pascal’s head and took him out of his game plan. Hopkins, he tried to do it with Chad. It was clearly not going to work with Chad. Chad was very mentally up for that fight. Head games were not going to work. They did work with Pascal. The proof was in the punch stats. …
“Hopkins had Pascal’s respect and had Pascal guessing and waiting and thinking too much. With Chad, he [Pascal] was more aggressive, just sensed that Chad wasn’t there and took advantage of it.”
BoxingScene.com: Any interest in some of the other guys fighting at 175?
Scully: “I think [Tavoris] Cloud is the other one. He brings that intensity, and he’s a guy that’s waiting to break out and make his name. And he’s dangerous. He’s very dangerous. It’s too bad that boxing is the way it is — the fight probably won’t happen unless there’s enough money involved, and I don’t know if he commands that kind of money. I think most people don’t know who he really is, which is unfortunate, just the way TV dictates so much.
“It’s really sad in a big way, he [Cloud] is a champion of the world, and he could probably walk into most gyms in this country and the fighters might not even know who he is, which I think sucks.”
BoxingScene.com: What else do you want people to know about Chad?
“A lot of people are down on him in certain ways because of that lackadaisical approach. Clearly a lot of people noticed that he came out with that fire in his eyes that hadn’t been seen in a long time with Hopkins.
“And from my end, if I have anything to say about it — which I do — he’s going to come to every fight with that kind of intensity. You can look for bigger and better things for Chad in the future.”
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to fightingwords1@gmail.com
