Super middleweight champ Andre Ward retained his WBA and WBC belts with a dominating 10th round TKO of WBC light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson. Ward neutralized Dawson from the second round on and dropped the larger Dawson in rounds three, four and ten. After the knockdown in round ten, Dawson rose to his feet but told referee Steve Smoger he did not want to continue. Ward was ahead on the cards 90-79 and 89-80 twice at the time of the stoppage.
Ward fought more aggressively than usual -- especially once he realized he was quicker than Dawson and could land his left almost at will. Punch stats were remarkably one-sided with Ward landing 155 of 418 punches (37%) to just 29 of 187 (16%) for Dawson.
The 28-year-old Ward - who won Gold at the 2004 Olympics - is now 26-0 (14 KOs) and among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. After defeating Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch to win the Super Six super middleweight tournament and now stopping Chad Dawson, the big question is what does Ward do for an encore? A rematch with Froch? Move down to meet Sergio Martinez at a catchweight? Or move up to light heavyweight?
No comments:
Post a Comment