Dawson-Stevenson, Gamboa-Perez North Of The Border Preview

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This weekend boxing fans will have numerous options on TV this week as both HBO and Showtime will be showing 2 great cards of boxing. On HBO, they will be presenting 2 Championship bouts from Montréal, Canada,  as “Bad” Chad Dawson (31-2 with 17 KOs) returns to the light heavyweight division and will be defending his WBC Light Heavyweight belt against the hard hitting Haitian, who now resides in Canada, Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (20-1 with 17 KOs). Also on the undercard, Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0 with 16 KOs) will be facing Darley Perez 28-0 with 19 KOs) for the vacant WBA interim Lightweight title.

Last we saw Chad Dawson; he was getting dominated by Andre Ward in the super middleweight division. Dawson was scheduled to face Jean Pascal, but then Pascal switched to create a Canadian Super fight between himself and fellow Canadian, Lucian Bute. Even though that fight never happened because of Bute getting injured, it still left Dawson without an opponent. In walks Stevenson and now Dawson has a chance to get some of the respect that he probably shouldn’t have lost in his defeat with Ward, which was 9 months ago.

Adonis Stevenson was a late starter in the sport of Boxing, didn’t turn pro until he already reached the age of 29. He fought his 1st fight in the US only 3 years ago, which happened to be his only blemish as he was stopped in the 2nd round by Darnell Boone. His last fight, 3 months ago, was the rematch against Boone and he got his payback, knocking out Boone in the 6th. Most of Stevenson’s fights have been at 168 lbs, but he does have 2 fights at 175 lbs, including his last fight against Boone. Stevenson now will try to make a name for himself and capitalize off a Dawson that may not be back to what he was previously.

This fight will all come down to which Chad Dawson we see. Will he be the Dawson who has a decorated amateur history and before the Ward fight, was looked  at as 1 of the best and most respected fighter in the world? Or will we see the Dawson that was just punished by Ward for 10 rounds and knocked down 3 times till he just tapped out? I feel that Dawson is much more skilled than Stevenson, but Stevenson has power and can always catch Dawson. Stevenson will have to get inside as Dawson has a reach advantage and normally uses the jab very well. I think Dawson will find a way to win this by unanimous decision and will then continue on to possible bigger things from here.

In the other fight, Gamboa vs. Perez, there will be a lot of hype around Gamboa, as there normally is. He’s a powerful Cuban fighter with fast hands and a very questionable chin, that’s a combination that usually makes for exciting fights; it can also make for an overhyped fighter. Perez is also a solid fighter, who will have a reach advantage and also has pop. This however, is a big step up in competition in him, so it not clear whether he can handle the class edge that Gamboa will have. If you haven’t noticed by now I’m not the biggest fan of Gamboa and I think his cocky attitude in the ring will eventually catch up to him, but I don’t think it will be now. I’m taking Gamboa by 5th rd TKO.

All in all it should be a great weekend of boxing, especially coming off what was a very slow week last week. Whether you are watching HBO or Showtime or both, you should be easily able to get your boxing fix for the week and on this card particularly, you should get 2 exciting fights that could both end in the blink of an eye, enjoy the fights.