By Robert Jackson: Even though I don’t consider Chad Dawson ‘Bad’ as he once was, I’m hoping he’ll return to the form he showed during his fight against Tomas Adamek a few years ago, albeit he was cornered by Floyd Mayweather Sr. Dawson, 29 from New Haven, Connecticut had a solid if not stellar amateur career and knows how to fight.
Since Floyd Sr’s release Dawson has worked with trainers Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, and in his last fight, Kronk’s Emanuel Steward was in his corner when Dawson registered a lackluster win over former champion Adrian Diaconu. For this fight Dawson returned to John ‘Iceman’ Scully (not to be confused with George ‘Iceman’ Chambers) to train and corner him stating that he wants to go back to being the fighter he was earlier in his career when he was knocking guys out.
Most boxing insiders consider it dangerous to make major changes close to a big fight and for Dawson moving from the 30+ year training veteran Steward to former fighter Scully had to be calculated. Dawson now entering his prime years, needed to take control of his career, and replacing Steward made that statement loud and clear.
A trainers job isn’t to teach a fighter how to fight, it’s to bring the best out of his charge amongst the chaos of a prizefight and Steward’s track record has shown him being able to do that. The less experienced Scully has struggled to get charges and Matt Godfrey or Mike Oliver to the promised land.
Considering Dawson’s considerable physical attributes, relative youth, height (closer to 6’4” then the 6’1”), and reach combined with good boxing skills and technique this is Dawson’s fight to lose. Dawson taking control of his boxing career definitely made a statement in the right direction for him. This decision alone should be the extra he needs to overcome overachiever Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night. If it isn’t enough Bad Chad has no one to blame but himself.