The last time Andre Ward lost...

[ИATAS]

H
So, I guess what I'm trying to get out here is, when did the weight become a known issue?

The weight became a problem the moment Ward landed that picture perfect shot on Chad's chin. That's when it became a problem.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

If a guy I train gets hit by a car a week before the fight but is still going through with it, if u ask me, Im still gonna tell u he feels spectacular...

[Mr. Philadel]

nobody beats chad at 175? c'mon son. He already lost to pascal. Ward would school him at 175 too. Ward is simply on another level. No disrespect to Chad. Maybe Chad sees the final bell at 175 but no way in hell he knows how to deal with a guy like Ward. Stylistically he's a nightmare for Dawson.

I knew somebody was gonna mention Pascal....I know I'm not the only one who thinks Chad didn't show up that night and STILL almost got him outta there...Chad on tilt would ice that dude bro....IDK man, Ward vs Chad @ 175 is a different fight imo...a whole different scrap...I would love to see it....if it's the same outcome, I would be shocked...thats just me bro!!

[DAN916]

He was 14 years old when he last lost

[BattlingNelson]

If a guy I train gets hit by a car a week before the fight but is still going through with it, if u ask me, Im still gonna tell u he feels spectacular...

Thanks John.

[Pele..Rjj..23]

INCREDIBLE..love reading these kind of things, Whens the book out ICE

[HeroBando]

So, I guess what I'm trying to get out here is, when did the weight become a known issue? Because like I said, there were absolutely no signs of problems with the weight physically on Chad's part before the fight, and the rest of his team was fine as well. I'm just really confused here when it comes to this whole weight debacle.

Other than the many rumors and threads the week before the fight. Remember when the Miranda rumor broke, Chad went to 4/1 underdog. I know it's rumors only, but do you really expect the fighters team to announce the fighter is in bad shape in the runup? We didn't get that from Team DLH before Pac, or Team Byrd before George.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/box...me/chad-dawson

For real, I asked, was Dawson weight-drained?

"Unbelievably," Scully told me.

And when did you know this?

"A couple weeks ago," Scully said.

[Tmann400]

I'm well aware that the fighter or his team aren't going to just announce to the entire world that the fighter is doing bad in camp or isn't handling weight well etc, and I'm not insinuating that that's what should of been done, But, with that being said. It didn't seem like by the overall attitude from everyone in Dawson's camp was suggesting anything was going sour, that's all I'm saying. It didn't really seem to me that anything became a problem until Chad after that 3rd round in the fight, then everyone was screaming "weight drained".

Matter of fact, like I said in my previous post, a lot of people felt Chad looked fine at the weigh in, including myself. I'm not saying that tells you everything, but it does tell you something. Look at Brandon Rios at the weigh in's for his fights with Abril and Murray, and then look at Chad at the weigh in for Ward, BIG difference, right? Rios was drained. Dawson didn't appear drained, not by a long shot. Also, even as badly drained as Rios was, he still managed to not only beat Murray convincingly, but he stopped him as well. Why? Because he was the better fighter. Yet. against Abril, who he was also drained against, he lost, and lost badly (Still got the win, but we know that was a robbery) so you see what I'm saying here? Usually if you're the superior fighter all around, you're going to win, even if you're not at your very best.

That's not to say Chad didn't have weight issues, BUT that doesn't mean he was full fledged drained either. Chad also re-hydrated all the way back up to 185 on fight night as well. I mean IMO, Chad actually looked sharp in the first two rounds, but Ward started catching Dawson's right hand and coming over it with left hooks and jabs, and that's when I saw Chad get tentative. Chad looked more like a tentative fighter to me than an energy-less fighter.

Not to mention, Dawson himself admitted that Ward was, quote "Was way faster then I thought, and way stronger too, and he's the best" I'm paraphrasing just a bit but that's more or less exactly what he said. So, unless he wasn't being sincere which it seemed that he was being sincere, what's up with that? Like I said, this whole debacle mystifies me.

And, to just be brutally honest here, if these weight issues were so bad that he wasn't going to be able make the weight without hurting himself, then Shaw or someone from Dawson's management should of either postponed the fight, or straight up told the truth that making the weight just wasn't happening, could we have more time, or could we try a catch-weight etc, something y'know? Because, now what you have is one fighter (Dawson) who took a brutal stoppage loss, and he may not of been at his best. Then, you got another fighter (Ward) who put on a beautiful, literally flawless performance with a grand stand finish, but all the play is being taken away from him and he isn't getting credit. And, you got the same exact people who were even predicting Dawson would beat Ward, going back on things they said, and are saying it was a fake win and s.hit, and Dawson was completely drained etc. To me, that aspect of this entire situation is what pisses me off the most, and I think is utter bulls.hit, IMO.

I think people need to honestly go back and look at that fight, and look at how accurate those left hooks were that dropped Dawson in rounds 3 and 4. They were picture perfect and right on the point of the chin and also perfectly timed. And while Dawson doesn't have a bad chin at all, he has always shown a slightly suspect chin. Whereas Ward's previous opponents like Abraham, Bika, Froch, Kessler etc had very good chins and were very durable so it was unlikely he would stop them. He did shake Kessler pretty bad a couple of times with right hands, and was turning Froch's head with left hooks big time.

Either way, I hope we get a rematch at 175 just so people realize that Ward is THAT good. The only thing I think could be different is Dawson may not get stopped, and may win another round or two, but that's about it. I would still expect Ward to win 9-3 10-2. Even if weight was a bit of an issue, do people not realize just how one sided that fight was? I mean, how much different could it be? Yea, you could say that all fights never look the same. True, but I seriously just don't get how someone could think the fight happening at 175 would change the fact that Ward had a foot speed, timing, defensive and just an overall skill advantage over Dawson. To me, it was obvious.

I could understand people's points if Dawson had really good early success but then gassed later on because of the weight and it cost him the fight. But, let's get real here, this was the very definition of one-sided from the 3 round forward. Dawson just couldn't find Ward with anything he threw, especially the jab and he couldn't get out of the way of Ward's jab, right hand to the body, or left hook up top. So, when you can't land anything your throwing really, and getting hit with everything your opponent throws at you, you're in serious trouble.

Either way, I wish Chad the best in future fights and he's still a very good fighter, but he just ran into a great fighter. And, I also hope Ward starts getting the proper credit from certain people that he's not getting it from. People need to start realizing that there's a reason why this kid hasn't lost a fight in well over a decade. I'm sure John would even tell you that.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Ill say this, fighting under circumstances such as last minute weight loss, etc is EXTREMELY difficult to perform under...it can be as if your brain and muscles have NO connection to each other and it doesnt matter what u want to do, its what ur body will allow you to do. It happens often in boxing, definitely. Things happen before fights and they go a long ways toward dictating how the fight physically plays out. In my experience most fighters go into fights not perfectly ready

[Light_Speed]

I knew somebody was gonna mention Pascal....I know I'm not the only one who thinks Chad didn't show up that night

Oh he showed up, he just doesn't look good against young explosive fighters.