By James Slater: Having finally managed to pound out a clear decision win over one time bitter rival, now respected fellow warrior Bernard Hopkins – a fighter it is almost impossible to look good against – “Bad” Chad Dawson is at the top of the light-heavyweight tree.
The gifted southpaw is the Ring Magazine and WBC 175-pound king and the 29-year-old with the 31-1(17) record is enjoying his second reign as champ. The one loss on Dawson’s record – an August 2010 11th-round TD loss to former champ Jean Pascal – is the sole blemish on Dawson’s record, yet in the opinion of a number of people, that loss has to be avenged before Chad can be looked at as a Pound-for-Pound star; or even as the best light-heavyweight out there.
Dawson, though, is worthy of being placed in some P-4-P top-10’s, and with big fights planned against the likes of Andre Ward, Dawson could become a real star if he can keep winning. Pascal, if he can defeat IBF champ Tavoris Cloud (this fight being near done for the summer), would make a great rematch opponent for Dawson, but right now I think Dawson is worthy of a place in the top-10 P-4-P.
Dawson seems to have grown mentally stronger since the Pascal defeat, where he was bullied on occasion, and the win over Hopkins has to have earned “Bad” Chad a lot of respect – after all, Pascal was twice beaten by B-Hop (only once officially, yet we all know the Dec. 2010 draw between the two came about only because of poor scoring on the part of two of the judges; scoring almost as bad as that which we saw this past Saturday, when one official somehow scored Dawson-Hopkins II a draw!).
Dawson, right now, deserves to be ranked as the #1 at light-heavyweight, and until anyone can come along and knock him off the top spot, that is where he will sit. But where does Dawson deserve to be placed P-4-P-wise?
1: Floyd Mayweather Junior
2: Manny Pacquiao
3: Sergio Gabriel Martinez
4: Nonito Donaire
5: Andre Ward
6: Wladimir Klitschko
7: Juan Manuel Marquez
8: Timothy Bradley
9: Chad Dawson
10: Vitali Klitschko