By Rick Reeno
Former champion Chad Dawson (32-3, 18KOs) is ready to get right back in the mix of the light heavyweight division. On Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, Dawson returned after a one-year layoff and knocked out George Blades in one round.
Dawson regrets making the decision to squeeze down in weight to face Andre Ward at super middleweight, which resulted in Dawson getting stopped in the tenth round. Nine months later he traveled over to Canada to face Adonis Stevenson on his home soil, and suffered a first round TKO defeat.
"I made a few mistakes. The first mistake I made was going down to 168 to fight Andre Ward. The second mistake I made was treating myself like the opponent, going to the other guy's backyard to defend my title, which is something I had no control over but I did it any way because I wanted to show the true champion side of me and I did that. It didn't pan out the way I wanted it to, but I had a year off and now I'm back," Dawson told BoxingScene.com.
If there is one guy who Dawson would like to face, it would be Stevenson. A unification between Stevenson and Hopkins is likely for the fall, but Dawson hopes to get Stevenson (should he win) by next year.
"Yeah, that's what I would like to happen. Hopefully by this time next year it will happen," Dawson said.
