Boxing Coverage updated 24/7 at MaxBoxing.com

Dawson Lifts WBC Lightweight Title from Adamek
By Angel Rodriguez (Feb 4, 2006) Photo © Tom Casino SHOWTIME

Send this page to friend

Give us your feedback

KISSIMMEE, Florida – The WBC light heavyweight championship bout between Chad Dawson and Tomasz Adamek started out with “Bad Chad” getting adjusted to the Polish title holder’s power while Adamek adjusted to Dawson’s speed. It would soon be clear that the Showtime-televised main event wasn’t the grizzled bull versus green matador match up that many had expected as both fighters circled each other in search of an Achilles Heel.

What would be come apparently clear to the reported 5,270 in attendance at the Silver Spurs Arena is that Adamek’s Achilles Heel would be speedy straight punches. After three fights against the brawling and methodical Thomas Ulrich and Paul Briggs, Adamek was finally facing a polished technician whose savvy defense negated Tomasz’s only strength: pressure brawling.

The gap in skill would become more pronounced as the rounds wore on and Adamek kept walking into an increasingly diverse variety of punches. The whipping uppercuts, hooks, and straight lefts that only increased after Adamek landed a few flush punches. Dawson doesn’t like to be hit (who do?), but he handles the contact by becoming more clinical and cold blooded.

The beginning of the ending for Adamek came when a straight left to the belly dropped Tomasz on his ass in the seventh round. The knockdown emboldened the Connecticut-based light heavyweight to release the hounds and occasionally buckle the increasingly winded European. The going got so good for Dawson that the challenger became too comfortable hitting Adamek at will and forgot to move his head.

The rookie mistake would see Dawson get dropped with a right hand in the 10th round to the delight of the Polish contingent in the crowd who were silent for the previous seven rounds. The young Turk would respond favorably to the chin check by knowing when to hold and when to bolo punch the increasingly more confident, but ultimately not much more effective and now 31-1 (20) Polish pugilist.

The judge’s scores of 116-110, 117-109, and 118-108 anointed Dawson, now 23-0 (15 KOs), the new WBC light heavyweight champion.
Concurrently, the initially indifferent Central Florida crowd that turned into a rabid pro-Dawson cheering section after the fifth round would effectively anoint Dawson the new people’s champ at 175 pounds.

The crowd turnout was surprising given the fact that the promoters only had two weeks to hype a bout in the aftermath of the Miami locale falling out as an option. Adding to the difficulty of promoting the bout was a tornado that destroyed half of Deland, a city east of Orlando, being widely reported as having hit Orlando. Nevertheless, a new king at light heavyweight would ascend while an old soldier at lightweight would take an unexpected fall.

Julio Diaz started his challenge for Jesus Chavez’s IBF lightweight strap by boxing smartly from a distance while controlling the shorter Chavez with an educated jab. After two rounds of Diaz’s disciplined stick-and-move, the bout would end when Chavez’s knee would bizarrely give out following a barely landed double jab from Julio. As Chavez clutched his leg that sported a knee brace in pain, referee Frank Santore counted ten over Jesus.

The new IBF lightweight champion was just as shocked as everyone else while accepting his title belt and moving on to a 34-3 (24 KOs) record. Unlike Jameel McCline’s freak knee injury against Nicolay Valuev in their heavyweight title bout a few weeks back, an unsubstantiated rumor has Chavez, now 43-4 (30 KOs), blowing his knee out in the week leading up to the fight. Obviously not wanting to reschedule after a year off from injuries, Chavez would ultimately go on his suicide mission against a veteran boxer-puncher in his prime.

Chavez will probably bounce back from this latest of a long line of unexpected professional and personal setbacks with the same class that he’s overcome previous pitfalls.

Rodney Jones of California did his best to play the role of Stockton spoiler by making IBF 154-pound title holder Cory Spinks earn each and every single round of the their title fight. After Spinks started the fight by jumping the bone dry Jones in the first round, Rodney retaliated by using his reach to keep Cory from gaining momentum in the second stanza. When Jones started to gain enough confidence to brawl with Spinks on the inside, Spinks replied by whipping textbook counter hooks into the Californian’s elongated midsection.

After heated nip-and-tuck infighting throughout the early and middle rounds of the bout, Jones almost hit pay dirt by with a pair of shifty left hooks that buzzed an unsuspecting Spinks. Unable to press his advantage, or unaware that Cory was hurt, Rodney reverted to poking his foe from afar with an arm punch jab. The inability to go for the gusto would cost Jones, now 37-4-1 (23 KOs), dearly since the reigning title holder would show why the championship rounds are called just that.

Cory stepped up his ring savvy, timely combos, and clever counterpunching over the bout’s last two heats to reap the fruits that his earlier body punching had sowed. The scores of.120-108 and 118-109 twice, all for Spinks, didn’t quite tell the tale of the tape since Jones was a live underdog all the way to the tenth round.

After the bout Spinks, now 36-3 (11), said that he felt satisfied with his performance since Jones is a long and rangy veteran that ultimately couldn’t overcome Cory’s superior athleticism and smarts. Spinks then predictably called out the division’s cash cows (Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Shane Mosley) for a mega bout.

Wayne Braithwaite sloppily fought his way into a sketchy seventh-round TKO over Gustavo Enriquez, now 16-6 (12), on the Don King Promotions under card. “Big Truck” sputtered along like the short yellow bus but ultimately improved his record to 22-2 (18) when the judge quickly pulled the plug on Enriquez in the midst of a non-hurtful flurry.

Fast rising prospect out of Texas James Johnson dropped to 7-1 (7) when he was upset by 23 fight veteran Darnell Boone via six round decision. The gap in experience between Boone, now 14-8-2 (5), and the Texan decided the light heavyweight bout.

Heavyweight Bermane Stiverne moved to 9-0 (9) by knocking out local stiff Harold Sconiers stiff.