HBO's Boxing after Dark this past weekend put Canadian Adonis Stevenson against Chad Dawson in the Super Middleweight division and the result was explosive. Dawson got knocked out cold in the first round, as everyone knows, and everyone should also remember the old John Dunne rumination:
"Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
Okay, that's not the entire quote but it's the part most remembered. People in the fight game may not be steeped in Olde English, but they know what it means anyway. If you have never been KOd, then you've never been hit hard enough.
In boxing, everyone knows how to punch, and all it takes is one. Adonis Stevenson is a particularly heavy puncher but the task could have been accomplished by any decent puncher trained in the 'sweet science." And if Dawson caught Stevenson cold, the KO might have gone the other way.
I've got two points to make here. I like it that a 35 year old ex-con Stevenson made it back into a redemptive space. He seems an interesting, colorful boxer with a long half-life ahead of him in the sport of boxing. I hope he doesn't turn into a one-hit wonder like Buster Douglas b/c I'd like to see more of him--in a regular boxing match where his opponent sticks around for a little while.
The other thing, and most importantly, is that there will be a tendency for boxing fans to write off Chad Dawson. Agreed, he might be finished. Having been taken apart by the great Andre Ward, and being dropped three times during that fight, Dawson could easily have a confidence problem, as anyone of sound mind would.
And the Stevenson KO only adds to the mental burden, coming out of nowhere as it did. Being dropped, KOd, or even hit hard does something to you and, if you're anything like me, makes you realize you might not be ready for prime time boxing.
If Dawson wants to continue in the game, he's going to have to look down into himself and find the pieces of his soul, say 'screw them all' and put his pieces back together again. He's got to ignore the boxing writers and the blood-hungry fans who will now say he wasn't much to begin with.
Boxing writers are always welcome to get in the ring with even a has-been fighter, but their theories never hold when faced with such invitations. It's all bullshit, anyway.
Andre Ward is a boxing genius, a safe-cracker. He's beaten everyone so should all his previous opponents just give up their dreams and fade away?
And anyone who's been caught cold knows what can happen to you. Boom, hello-goodbye! After all, it's boxing, and the amazing reality of it, the courage, the painful drive hidden deep down in the fighter is what makes us love it.
Be kind to Dawson in his struggles. The bell tolls for thee, brother.
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