HBO Boxing – Antonio Tarver Vs. Chad Dawson Play By Play

They showed Manny Pacquiao’s destruction of Ricky Hatton again and it was just as devastating the second time. The only thing that looked any different was that the knockout punch didn’t look like a left hook. It looked like a cross between a straight left and a left cross. But it was just as nasty of a knockout.

There are some great fights coming up. Andre Berto vs. Juan Urango, Miguel Cotto vs. Joshua Clottey, Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye, and then the return of Money May against Juan Manuel Marquez. It’s such a great time to be a boxing fan.

Antonio Tarver vs. Chad Dawson

R1
This round was all about Dawson seeing if Tarver had anything. He let Tarver let his hands go a little bit and his goal was just to time him and make him miss a bit. Near the end of round, he showed off some nice hand speed. Tarver’s hands look fairly slow.

R2
Dawson seems a little bored out there and is picking and choosing when to open up. The hand speed difference is tremendous. Tarver is completely in defensive mode.

R3
Tarver seemed ok to just pepper shots at Dawson as if he was Ali in his prime and could simply sit back against the ropes and toy with Dawson. I don’t think that’s the right strategy.

R4
Dawson hit him with a great left hand that staggered Tarver, but Dawson didn’t follow it up. He stayed patient and calm and let Tarver catch his breath. Tarver landed a few of his better shots in the fight in the round too. But they weren’t as solid or as hard as Dawson’s.

R5
Tarver landed some really good shots at the beginning of the round. It looks like Dawson is willing to let Tarver land a bit and stay active and then once it looks like Tarver gets tired, Dawson unleashes. Dawson took the second half of the round and probably won the round outright.

R6
Tarver seems fine with landing patty cake shots on Dawson’s arms. I keep thinking he’s doing that to set up bigger shots, but he’s not throwing the bigger shots. Dawson didn’t do much that round, but he still outlanded him 4-1.

R7
This was the best round of the fight. For the first half of the round, Tarver was landing his jab, pretty much at will. Then Dawson took over a bit and seemed to start to take over, but Tarver opened up and landed some decently big shots. Dawson came back near the end, but Tarver was standing toe to toe with him and probably took the round. That’d be the first round for Tarver on my imaginary scorecard.

R8
Bad Chad boxed a lot more in this round and took control of the round, but the crowd is starting to get behind Tarver because he’s opening up and making it a fight. It didn’t look like it was going to be much of one early on.

R9
Dawson is winning all these rounds, but not really convincingly, and it’s because Tarver is pretty sly. He’s able to make his performance look good, even though he’s not really hitting Dawson much. He pressed Dawson the entire round and Dawson simply made him miss.

R10
Dawson was tremendous defensively in the round. He didn’t really counter off the misses though, which his corner scolded him for. But I don’t think he gave the round away at all. Tarver couldn’t do anything.

R11
Tarver looked good in the round, though Dawson landed a beautiful right hand. I think Tarver thinks the judges would give him that round. I’m not so sure myself, but he’s doing a good job at making it look like he’s fighting a good fight.

R12
I thought the round would be a little bit busier, but both guys just fought inside and nothing really happened.

If Tarver gets more than three round or four rounds, it’s all based on his ability to get the judges to think he was doing some sort of damage, when he really wasn’t doing any. I thought he fought as good a fight as possible, but Dawson is too big, too strong, and too quick.

Winner: Chad Dawson by way of unanimous decision

The scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 117-111.

HBO Boxing’s Twitter account had the fight for Tarver by two rounds. Huh? Did it look that different ringside?

Dawson didn’t inspire many people tonight, but at this point, I’m not sure too many people are going to look good against Tarver. They’re talking about Dawson fighting Glen Johnson again.

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