07.02.07 – by Jacqui Snow: Let’s take nothing away from Chad Dawson’s dominant performance on Saturday night in winning the WBC Light Heavyweight belt against Poland’s Tomasz Adamek. Dawson, who scored his 23rd win, boxed beautifully and displayed the speed and talent that’s kept him undefeated in his professional career. Adamek appeared hapless and over-matched in the fight; it’s arguable that only the flash-knockdown in the tenth saved him from a complete shutout. This was Adamek’s first loss as a professional and he falls to 31-1. He was gracious in defeat, saying through a translator that Dawson was quicker than he was, and that’s why he won the fight..
While those of us who’ve followed Adamek’s career do realize that Dawson’s hand speed is faster than that of Adamek’s previous opponents, we’re left seeking answers. We want to know why Adamek’s speedy footwork, slick boxing skills and devastating right hand were missing-in-action. And we’re wondering why the man who’s famous for his willingness to go toe-to-toe with his opponent had to be warned in the tenth round by his trainer, Buddy McGirt, that the fight would be stopped if he didn’t start throwing punches.
Which brings us to the subject at hand. Buddy McGirt is known as one of the elite trainers in the game, but over the past year or so, his marquee fighters haven’t just lost, they’ve done so in spectacular fashion, with complete (or near) shutout losses.
Joel Julio was one of the hottest prospects in the welterweight division, named as ESPN.com’s boxing prospect of the year in 2005. Carlos Quintana was supposed to be a gimme for Julio, but instead, Julio faced his first defeat, on his HBO debut, losing all twelve rounds on one judge’s card. McGirt raised a few eyebrows at the start of the 11th round by telling his fighter, hopelessly down on the scorecards, to “get behind the jab! Don’t worry about the knockout!”
Antonio Tarver, who was given similar advice from his trainer going into the final round, was utterly thrashed by Bernard Hopkins, losing every single round on all the scorecards (118-109 all around). Unbelievably, things got even worse for McGirt when his fighter Prince Badi Ajamu faced off against disgraced former champion Roy Jones Jr., who came back from retirement for the fight. Jones had lost his last three fights, two of them to the aforementioned Tarver. Yet Jones’ domination of Ajamu was so complete that all three judges scored the bout a humiliating 106-119 loss for Ajamu.
As far back as August 2004, one of McGirt’s fighters, JC Candelo, was on the receiving end of a stunning upset loss. A highly ranked contender at the time, Candelo was set to face Joachim Alcine on ESPN, but Alcine failed the medical. His replacement, Eddie Sanchez, was pretty much picked out of the crowd on seven hours’ notice in order to salvage the telecast. The lightly regarded Sanchez proceeded to out-box and out-hustle his opponent en route to a lopsided unanimous decision win. Sanchez was unable to maintain the momentum from that victory and quickly followed it with two knockout losses.
McGirt was also in the corner of highly touted prospect Mike Anchondo when he was handed his first loss in April 2005. Anchondo, who was 25-0 at the time, was supposed to be defending his new WBO Super Featherweight title, but he failed to make weight. Jorge Barrios agreed to fight him anyway and ended up scoring a fourth-round knockout over his bigger opponent to claim the title.
Needless to say, McGirt can’t be expected to shoulder all the blame for his fighters’ losses. As previously noted, Chad Dawson put on a masterful performance and deserves the credit for his win. In the case of Arturo Gatti’s humiliation at the hands of pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, a colleague of mine pointed out, “Jesus Christ in his corner wouldn’t have helped Gatti win!” Conversely, though, a trainer needs to be held accountable when his fighter is unexpectedly and completely dominated, particularly when that trainer’s resume reflects a number of such losses.