By David P. Greisman
Photo © Scott Foster/FightWireImages.com
“Bad” Chad has had a good year.
It was only 12 months ago that Chad Dawson was just another prospect, a former middleweight and rising super middleweight whose biggest test to date had been a 2004 stoppage of former 154-pound beltholder Carl Daniels. But young undefeated fighters are a dime a dozen – the real acclaim comes from fame and fortune, the products of face time on the small screen.
Yet, at the time, Dawson’s last performance had flown under the radar, a knockout of a designated opponent that went unseen by the American masses who had tuned in solely for Joe Calzaghe’s trouncing of Jeff Lacy.
Dawson needed more, and he got it.
The June 2, 2006, edition of ShoBox: The New Generation didn’t have the usual headline bout of two prospects facing their toughest tests yet. Instead, the main event of Chad Dawson-Eric Harding was a light heavyweight crossroads bout – except Harding wasn’t your typical crossroads opponent.
The recipe goes like this: Take one young prospect and have him mix it up with one faded, aging veteran. The veteran may give the prospect a test, but his name will ultimately end up looking nice on said prospect’s ledger.
Harding was 33 and many years removed from his decision victories over Montell Griffin and Antonio Tarver. After losing two bouts in a row, he had taken nearly 21 months off from the fight game before returning with two wins.
But those losses came against Glencoffe Johnson and the aforementioned Tarver, two of the three best light heavyweights around. The third, Roy Jones, had stopped Harding in 2000 in the middle of his long reign at 175 pounds. Harding wasn’t done, and, following the layoff, he had proven as much by defeating lower-tier challengers David Telesco and Daniel Judah.
Harding had something left. And it was Harding’s left that floored Dawson in the opening stanza, a flash knockdown that Dawson said was bad for him but worse for his opponent.
“Harding caught me with a good shot, but it was the only mistake I made all night,” Dawson said afterward. “Getting knocked down just makes me meaner.”
Dawson got up and got going, taking control, bloodying Harding’s nose and battling his way to a unanimous decision.
With that win, Dawson had immediately grown from a prospect into a contender. His next bout would see him rise from contender to titlist.
Over 12 rounds, Dawson used jabs, left crosses, an occasional uppercut and a constant banging body attack to take it to Tomasz Adamek. And though an Adamek right hand put Dawson to the canvas in the 10th round, it was Dawson who saw his fists raised in the air when the unanimous decision was announced.
Suddenly, Dawson was the proud owner of a green World Boxing Council championship belt. And, just as important, he is a 24-year-old American in a division where the Ring Magazine champion is a 42-year-old Bernard Hopkins and the lineal champion is a Zsolt Erdei who has yet to distinguish himself after seven defenses.
Young undefeated fighters are a dime a dozen. The existence of sanctioning bodies allows for far too many title claimants to muddy the weight classes. But a youthful, marketable American with a world title is almost always welcome on the small screen, from where he can receive acclaim, fame and fortune.
The Adamek victory was cause for celebration, and the winner used his paycheck to buy a brand-new midnight blue Cadillac Escalade. Amusingly, Dawson doesn’t drive it as much as his girlfriend does, he told reporters on a conference call earlier this week. “It is my truck, but she looks better in it,” he said.
Dawson’s girlfriend may handle the steering wheel, but it is Dawson who has taken himself to this point in his career – his first title defense, scheduled to take place June 9 against Jesus “Chuy” Ruiz and in front of a Connecticut crowd that will be cheering on their local product.
“Everybody dreams about having a lot of title defenses,” Dawson said. “I am excited, and I am going to come out and show my hometown fans a good fight and a good show.”
But a boxer’s homecoming doesn’t come without expectations – aside from the idea of putting on a good show, there are the publicity appearances that sell the fight and the ticket requests that deluge the fighter.
Dawson, fortunately, has his manager handling the tickets, and he has been sequestered – away from anything else that could derail him – by working across the country with trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas.
“When I’m here, it is all boxing,” Dawson said. “I have been working everyday, no distractions.
“I have a lot of confidence. I am still kind of high off that [Adamek] win, so I want to go in and show everybody that I am even better than the last one,” he said.
Should Dawson get by Ruiz – and should Antonio Tarver triumph in that night’s main event bout with Elvir Muriqi – the wheels are already in motion for matching the two.
Tarver, fittingly, represents the Mason-Dixon Line, for a win over Rocky Balboa’s final opponent would take Dawson over the border into true stardom. Tarver made his name through his three fights against Roy Jones; last year’s loss to a rejuvenated Bernard Hopkins shouldn’t have left his reputation completely tarnished.
“Bad” Chad had a good year, one that saw a once-prospect climb leaps and bounds toward his peak. The next 12 months, however, could be even better.
David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
