Though it wasn’t nearly as easy the second time around, undefeated IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Chad Dawson bested former champion Antonio Tarver once again with a unanimous decision, breaking Tarver’s perfect rematch record along the way.
The first bout back in October saw Dawson befuddle Tarver with exceptional hand speed and better boxing, culminating in a twelfth round knockdown of the “Magic Man.” So dominant was Dawson in that fight that the only one needing a rematch for closure was Tarver, who was able to secure one thanks to a clause in the contract from the first fight. The 40-year-old Tarver, citing his 3-0 record in rematches, believed he had the ability to get the job done, even if the rest of the boxing world disagreed. Originally scheduled for March, the rematch was set back two months when Dawson suffered a hand injury in training. Going into the fight, Dawson seemed anxious to be done with it, talking about his lack of respect for Tarver for having enforced a rematch most fans didn’t want to see.
While Dawson words suggested he was going to put a beating on Tarver, the fight itself felt more like going through the motions for the Light Heavyweight Champion. The two southpaws began by feeling each other out with the jab until Dawson mixed in some body shots and a straight left hand. Tarver missed with a right hook but came back to catch Dawson with a straight left of his own across the face, though Dawson edged a close opening round by being just a tad busier.
Using his jab more in the second round, Dawson tagged Tarver with a pair of body shots against the ropes. Two more landed for the champion in the center of the ring, and he knocked Tarver’s head back with two jabs through the gloves. Dawson tried to get cute when he dipped down, but Tarver caught him rising with a straight left across the face. Dawson answered by digging in with another pair of body shots. Tarver then snapped Dawson’s head with a hard right hook as the champion leaned into him, and Dawson fought back with another pair of body shots and got a left through Tarver’s guard. Leading with the jab, Tarver caught Dawson with a left at the bell, but, when Tarver tried for another one, Dawson hit him with a straight left hand to the back of the head. Tarver stopped to complain to Referee Robert Byrd, and Dawson was quick to apologize. Through two rounds, Dawson was outworking the challenger, but Tarver was game.
Tarver began round three more offensive-minded, scoring with a body shot. Dawson put a glove to Tarver’s head to try to slow him down but ate a left hand and a round of body shots from the challenger. Tarver landed a jab, blocked a combination and landed another jab, but Dawson smacked him with a right hook around the glove the second time. Tarver went back to sticking the jab through Dawson’s gloves, controlling the tempo of the round. Leading with an uppercut, he caught Dawson with a right hook around the glove. Dawson played defense almost the entire three minutes, perhaps in an attempt to get Tarver to expend his energy, and allowed the challenger to win the round clearly. Dawson went after him to end the round, but Tarver slid back along the ropes, keeping a glove on them to keep his balance, and leaned back into the corner to dodge the champion’s power shots. Dawson gave a noticeable shove to Tarver’s neck with his glove, and the two headed to their corners.
Round four was a different story as Dawson went on the attack, swiping at Tarver with a right hook to the head, followed by one to the body. He continued digging into Tarver’s body and shooting straight lefts into a covering Tarver’s gloves to regain the offensive. Tarver did manage to stuff in a straight left that knocked the champion’s head up midway through the round, but two strong jabs from the champion knocked Tarver’s head back. Dawson landed two thudding body shots, but Tarver came back with two chopping left hands and a right hook, before drilling Dawson with a straight left through the gloves. Dawson missed with a right hook and walked into another big left hand from Tarver that turned his head. Tarver ended the round by scoring with a left-right around Dawson’s guard, but his effort was too little, too late, coming all in the final twenty seconds, and Dawson still won the round with his previous work.
The fifth round again saw Dawson begin by firing punches in combination, though he struggled to land anything other than body shots. Tarver caught him ducking with a big left over the side of the head, followed by another one across the jaw as Dawson swung wildly with a right hook. Tarver added an uppercut and a right hook around the glove as Dawson covered up. Tarver continued his attack with several body shots as Dawson held him by the head. Dawson then held Tarver by the arm and caught another body shot and a right hook over the side of the head. Tarver went for another right hook but walked into an uppercut from Dawson. Tarver scored with a right hook, followed by his own uppercut, which snapped Dawson’s head up. Dawson grabbed Tarver’s arm again and took some right hooks over the head as Tarver was now the one outworking him. Trying to bull Tarver into the ropes, Dawson finally landed a hard right hook to knock Tarver into the corner. He fired flurries into the gloves, getting one straight left through to Tarver against the ropes, but Tarver took the round with the damage he had dealt.
Dawson pinned Tarver against the ropes in the sixth and smashed a straight left through his gloves. Tarver got in a pair of right hooks and an uppercut, but Dawson slapped some right hooks back in return. Dawson then got in some body shots and started shoving Tarver back to create some space between them, rather than play Tarver’s game of brawling, and won the round on activity. Dawson kept his momentum and hit Tarver with four or five consecutive jabs to begin the seventh. Tarver was content to jab with him, landing four or five of his own in a row to cancel out Dawson’s previous work. But while Tarver’s jab was as good as Dawson’s, the champion proved the more versatile fighter, topping his jab work off with body shots, and appeared to be on his way to winning the round until Tarver was able to land a left hand in close. Dawson tried covering up and took a three-punch combination across the face, clearly stunned despite shaking his head to suggest otherwise. Dawson tried clinching and ate a right-left combination to the head as well. He finally recovered enough to beat Tarver back into the ropes with shots to the gloves, eventually getting in an uppercut. Tarver stuffed in his own uppercut and right hook in return, winning the round with his power punching rally and having his best moment against Dawson in 19 rounds.
Now realizing he was potentially in for a tough fight, Dawson opened the eighth round clinching Tarver’s arm, and Tarver made him pay with some left hands to the head. Dawson answered back like a champion with some right hooks to Tarver’s head, his punches seeming to have more on them than did Tarver’s. Dawson caught Tarver ducking with a body shot and an uppercut to the chest. Even in the jab department, where Tarver had been superior earlier, Dawson was winning the battle by snapping the challenger’s head back. Tarver did land a one-two to the head of Dawson from long range, his one good moment in the round. Dawson landed a left and a body shot before beating Tarver back with shots to the gloves to open the ninth. A visibly tired Tarver took a deep breath, but Dawson was instantly on him again with body shots. Tarver missed with a right hook and ate a hard one to the mouth from Dawson instead – Dawson’s best punch of the fight to that point. Tarver fought back with a right hook and a straight left to the body, determined not to go away easy on what could be his last big fight. Then, Dawson started putting the jab on the tiring Tarver, hoping to take out whatever energy the older fighter had left. Tarver went for a right hook and took a left hand from Dawson that turned his head. With Tarver on the ropes, Dawson started pounding in shots around the guard until the bell, picking up a big round.
Tarver tried to tame Dawson with his jab in the tenth, but Dawson slipped almost every punch he threw against the ropes and came off to nail Tarver with some jabs of his own. Still, Dawson played it risky by hardly throwing a punch in the round, nearly giving the round away to the challenger, which Dawson’s trainer Eddie Mustafa pointed out immediately after the round. So Dawson got busier in the eleventh, catching Tarver with right hooks. Next, he started popping Tarver’s head back with the jab. He caught Tarver stepping sideways with a right hook, followed by a straight left to the head. With a minute to go in the round, Tarver finally connected with three straight jabs. Tarver landed another jab through the gloves and ripped Dawson with an uppercut against the ropes. Two more uppercuts and a body shot got through as Dawson covered up. Tarver scored with a right hook and a straight left as well, landing punches from all angles. He added a body shot and another uppercut as Dawson offered nothing in return. Instead, Dawson held and absorbed two body shots and a left hand to the head. Tarver scored with a right hook and an uppercut, and, while there wasn’t a whole lot on the shots, they were keeping Dawson from doing anything in return. Two more body shots landed before Dawson tried to answer, but he had already given the round away.
Tarver raised his hands to the crowd following the bell, realizing he was very much in the fight and could win it with a big twelfth round. Sure enough, between rounds, both corners told their fighters they needed to win the last round, indicating how close they felt it was.
Three hard body shots to Tarver opened the round for Dawson. Tarver landed a right hook that caught Dawson’s attention shortly thereafter. Dawson grabbed Tarver around the waist, rose and caught a big right hook that snapped his head sideways. Dawson led with the jab and got in a body shot to Tarver in return. Dawson then let his hands go, pushing the attack, and caught Tarver with a straight left across the face against the ropes. Dawson grabbed Tarver around the head and took a right hook just as fast. With thirty seconds to go, it was Tarver who was letting his hands go, looking the fresher of the two, despite being 14 years older than Dawson. Dawson, on the other hand, was reduced to holding Tarver, looking like he might not even make it to the final bell. And, when the bell finally rang, Tarver was the first to throw his hands up, having finished much stronger, though Dawson appeared to have gotten enough rounds, including the twelfth, in the bank to claim the victory.
The judges agreed, awarding Dawson a unanimous decision by slightly wide scores of 117-111 twice and a more accurate 116-112, though there were several rounds Tarver had made a strong case for winning. Tarver certainly gave a much better account of himself than he had the first time around, and, if this is his last significant fight, he went out on a good note, giving Dawson all he could handle, whether that was his doing or Dawson’s. After all, Tarver had done so poorly in the first fight that he could only improve, which he did. Dawson couldn’t have done much better than he did in October, and he did significantly worse.
Dawson is now clamoring for a fight against former Light Heavyweight Champion Joe Calzaghe, and, even though he came into this fight uninspired, he has earned that match. With two wins over Tarver, one dominant and one gritty, a disputed decision over Glen Johnson and a decisive victory over reigning Cruiserweight Champion Tomasz Adamek, Dawson’s resume is worlds better than anyone Calzaghe has ever fought, save his last two opponents, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. Calzaghe says he’s staying retired, but, having only scored a few truly impressive victories in his undefeated career, Calzaghe needs a fight against someone like Dawson as another signature win if he wants to be remembered as a boxing great.
If he can’t lure Calzaghe back into the ring, Hopkins is the next best option for Dawson, but Hopkins definitely doesn’t need the fight and can’t be expected to take it. That leaves Dawson looking at the blossoming super middleweight division, which is chock full of very beatable fighters like Carl Froch, Lucien Bute and Mikkel Kessler, all of whom Dawson would be favored against. But the fight that hardcore boxing fans have been calling for is a rematch against Johnson. The first fight was extremely competitive, with Johnson looking better down the stretch and coming close to knocking Dawson off his feet on several occasions. A draw seemed to be most fitting that night, but Dawson got the nod by questionable scores comparable to those he earned against Tarver the second time around. Dawson owes it to his fans to clear up the matter with Johnson, especially if there’s nothing better on the immediate horizon. Then, maybe Calzaghe will decide Dawson is worth his while.
