Will Ward-Dawson Ignite Pugilisitc Powder?
“LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS” MEET ON HBO AT 168 LBS.
San Francisco, CA– The intrigue that applies is if you put on good fights, you make the viewers happy and make them a bit more susceptible to watch another boxing match sometime in the future. This weekend, Andre Ward & Chad Dawson engage in Ray Leonard-Donny Lalonde II. The reason I am affixing such a tag to this Saturday’s super middleweight (168 lb.) showdown is that Dawson, like Lalonde is a 175 lb. champ coning down to 168. Only difference is in 1988, the WBC sanctioned both titles ’68 & ’75 lb. titles. Ray would stop Lalonde but only after getting off the deck.
WHO WILL BE THE STRONGER MAN?
You would think that Dawson is like Lalonde, supposedly at a disadvantage in coming in at 168 lbs. But what if Dawson is not “dead” at the weight things can get interesting. Chad is a lefty, as is the converted (left to right) champion Ward who at 24-0, 15 KOs. His advantage if he can make 168 sans any residual effects, this figures to be much closer to the 3 1/2 to 4-1 betting favorite. Although Ward is trong as a bull, when he had nothing, trainer Virgil Hunter used to push a station wagon around a Hayward, CA shopping center parking lot for strength, Dawson is the naturally bigger man.
WEIGHT WILL BE STRUGGLE FOR BOTH MEN
Ward doesn’t make 168 with ease either. Although he says he can fight at 168, if they were to go to “same day” weigh ins, Ward says he would have to move up to 175. Looking at his frame, I couldn’t imagine Ward fighting any heavier than 175. As for the practicing southpaw Dawson, he has everything to win and almost nothing to lose as unlike Lalonde, his 175 lb. title is not part of this HBO Championship Boxing production, he can always go back to 175 and make significant coinage there.
MERCHANT RANKS WARD #2 TO MAYWEATHER
With Larry Merchant saying on a recent appearance of “Ring Talk Boxing Hour” heard Saturday’s at 11 AM PT on the Sports Byline Broadcast Network, that “Ward was the second best American fighter behind Floyd Mayweather. I’ve had people I’ve given Andre Ward tickets to that don’t want to see him again. A bit of a boxing historian, his rap on Ward is that he “won’t take risks (gamble).”
WILL WARD GAMBLE ON HIS OWN OR BE FORCED TO?
Ray Leonard told me once that the difference between a good fighter and a great one is “a great fighter is willing to gamble and take risks.” When it comes to Ward, he outclasses most foes to where he doesn’t need to put it all out there. That being said if Dawson can compete with Ward we may have a decent fight with an honest outcome. If these guys instead to “jab & grab” all night, people will be shutting their TV’s long before Larry Merchant takes his headset off.
Pedro Fernandez