By Lyle Fitzsimmons

Chad Dawson has heard every word.

How Glen Johnson deserved to win their first fight. How HBO forced him into accepting a rematch. And how Johnson – who was already within a few pounds of fight weight a month ago – is ready to finish this weekend in Hartford a job he claims to have started last year in Tampa.

Dawson hears it all. And for those who buy into it, he has one simple declaration:

“See you on Saturday night.”

“At this point, Glen Johnson sounds like he’s looking for excuses, and looking for ways to pump himself up,” Dawson said Monday, upon returning from a seven-week training camp in Las Vegas. “And that’s all it is, a lot of talk. But it doesn’t mean anything.”

As for the specific points Johnson and others have made, the unbeaten 27-year-old’s counters are just as precise, coming with the same slightly amused annoyance that marked replies prior to his last 40-something title-bout rematch – six months ago against Antonio Tarver.

Dawson won a unanimous nod over Tarver in their first bout in 2008 and repeated the feat in May.

He also beat Johnson by unanimous decision in 2008 and gets another chance at Hartford’s XL Center in his first home-state appearance in more than two years.

It’s his second defense of the IBO light heavyweight title he won from Tarver in their first go-round, which came after he’d won the WBC belt from Tomasz Adamek in 2007 and defended it three times – the last against Johnson – before voluntarily surrendering it.

Johnson, by the way, is also 40 years old.

“I’m going to prove it to myself and prove it to him and anyone else that he couldn’t beat me on his best day,” Dawson said. “What more can he do? He’s a one-dimensional fighter with one big right hand and he only knows how to fight one way, coming straight at you.

“I think I saw him at his best (last year) and he can’t possibly be the same guy now as he was then. I’m not saying he won’t be determined and won’t be coming to fight, because that’s Glen Johnson. But I know I’m better than I was then and it’s time for me to show it.

“My last two years have been nothing but Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. I’m ready to finish this part of my career once and for all and move on to see some new faces.”

Dawson swept the scorecards by matching 116-112 counts in the first meeting with Johnson, winning several early rounds before tasting the older man’s power and struggling in the back half of the fight – prompting many to claim Johnson had done enough to win.

Dawson initially balked at a rematch, but eventually signed on after failing to lure either Bernard Hopkins or Joe Calzaghe into big-money events. Johnson, meanwhile, claims the rematch only came about after Dawson was mandated to take the fight by HBO.

“I pretty much went into (Johnson’s) hometown and won a unanimous decision, so I don’t know what else I need to say about the first fight,” Dawson said. “All three judges said I won, but he’s still crying about it two years later. But I don’t let that get to me. I know I won the fight.

“I could’ve waited around for something else. But I wanted him again.”

And assuming things go his way again, Dawson is ambitious – and just as specific – about his future.

“With me right now, it’s all about going where the big money fights are. That’s what’s most important at this stage on my career,” he said, “and there are still the same couple of guys – Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe – that I most want to get fights with.

“Calzaghe’s retired, but there’s talk about him coming back, and Bernard is still ducking me. I’m hoping to get down to Philadelphia when he fights next month, so maybe I can persuade him to put something together with me.”

If neither Calzaghe nor Hopkins responds, Dawson’s options at 175 pounds are limited – prompting talk of replacing Jermain Taylor in Showtime’s six-man super middleweight tournament at 168, though his contract with HBO would presumably preclude such an arrangement.

Elsewhere at light heavyweight, the remaining belt-holders are Tavoris Cloud (IBF), Gabriel Campillo (WBA), Jean Pascal (WBC) and Zsolt Erdei (WBO).

Dawson won and subsequently defended both the IBO and IBF crowns against Tarver, but relinquished the latter when he refused to fight Cloud.

“I’m seriously thinking about my future, and, after I handle Glen Johnson, I’ll sit down with Gary (Shaw) and HBO and see where we go from there,” Dawson said. “If Showtime were to outbid (HBO), the thing at 168 is absolutely something I’d be interested in. But first on the list is Glen Johnson.

“As for Cloud, he’s holding on to a belt that I gave up. And he fought Clinton Woods to get it, in a fight that was awfully competitive. And the bottom line is that HBO didn’t want to buy the fight. Point blank, I’d have fought him, but HBO didn’t want to buy it. So you move on.”

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

FRIDAY
IBO featherweight title – Parramatta, Australia
Heriberto Ruiz (No. 18 contender) vs. Jackson Asiku (unranked)
Asiku (25-3, 13 KO): Ranked No. 34 at 130 pounds; Unbeaten since 2004 (14-0, 7 KO)
Ruiz (42-8-2, 24 KO): Lost WBA title shot at 118 pounds in 2004; First fight in Australia
Fitzbitz says: Ruiz by decision
 
SATURDAY
IBO light heavyweight title – Hartford, Conn.
Chad Dawson (champion) vs. Glen Johnson (No. 5 contender)
Dawson (28-0, 17 KO): Second title defense; Former WBC champ (2007-08)
Johnson (49-12-2, 33 KO): Former IBF/IBO champ; Tenth title fight (3-5-1, 1 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Dawson by decision

WBA heavyweight title – Nuremberg, Germany
Nikolai Valuev (champion) vs. David Haye (No. 4 contender)
Valuev (50-1, 34 KO): Second defense of second WBA reign; Eighth title fight (6-1, 3 KO)
Haye (22-1, 21 KO): Former WBA/WBC/WBO champ at 200 pounds; Fourth title fight (2-1, 2 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Haye in 7

Last week’s picks: 0-2
Overall picks record: 48-16 (75 percent)

Lyle Fitzsimmons is an award-winning 21-year sports journalist, a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and will be more surprised if Chad Dawson doesn’t win eight rounds this weekend than if he does. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com , follow him at twitter.com/fitzbitz or read him at fitzbitzonfights.wordpress.com.