Chad Dawson's two fights with Antonio Tarver both did awful attendance numbers in Las Vegas. It'll be hard for him to land a big fight, which he desires. (via Yahoo! Sports)

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26-year old light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson may have HBO behind him, but as of right now he is far from being a viable star, and a fight with superstar veterans like Bernard Hopkins or the retired Joe Calzaghe is simply not going to happen.

Robert Morales reports that even though the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas reported about 2,100 in attendance for the Dawson-Tarver rematch last week, the actual number sold was 1,426.

Add that to the pitiful 991 tickets sold for their first fight in Vegas (at The Palms) last October, and you have a combined 2,417 tickets sold for two fights. Let's just say this wasn't the biggest rivalry in the sport.

To be totally fair, Dawson-Tarver could have outdone the two-fight number with one fight at Foxwoods in Connecticut, where Dawson is from, or likely even one fight in Tarver's native Florida. Since Dawson wouldn't go to Florida and Tarver wouldn't go to Connecticut, everyone lost money.

Dawson won't be landing a fight with Hopkins, and he doesn't have anywhere near the juice to bring Calzaghe out of retirement. That leaves precious few options, especially given that HBO Sports apparently wish to make him a star.  He may well have to fight Glen Johnson in the rematch that both he and promoter Gary Shaw seem deathly afraid to take, or he might have to make a fight with someone like Roy Jones Jr., who failed to sell much at Madison Square Garden against Calzaghe last November. Dawson-Jones would be destined for Vegas, too, most likely, and it'd be another probable gate flop.

Dawson simply is not a star, at least not yet. There's no getting around it.

On another note, the same Morales article says that cruiserweight champ Tomasz Adamek turned down a $1.2 million offer to fight Hopkins. Consider me skeptical.

One of the fights many diehard fans would love to see is a rematch between Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson. (via www.boxnews.com.ua)

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With last night's wide, perfectly fine, but hardly star-making rematch win over Antonio Tarver, IBF/IBO light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson must now face a harsh reality: There's just not much for him to do.

Most regard Dawson as the second-best light heavyweight in the sport today, behind only 44-year old living legend Bernard Hopkins. But in a division that is dominated mostly by older fighters who mean little at the box office, how does he become a bigger star?

There's no question he won't be able to get Joe Calzaghe out of retirement, which would be one of the two big fights he could make for himself, and even still Calzaghe has just never made a star out of himself in America. His two prime time fights on HBO -- against Mikkel Kessler and Bernard Hopkins -- tanked in the ratings, and his HBO pay-per-view "clash" with the faded Roy Jones last November was an even bigger flop. Respect his accomplishments though anyone may, I don't think anyone can argue against one fact: American audiences got a good taste of Calzaghe, and they sent the dish back.

Dawson is 26 years old. He has talked in recent weeks of moving down to super middleweight. Moving down is a lot harder than moving up, even for someone at optimum athletic age like "Bad" Chad. But there's a much larger scope down there for him, though no superfights.

The truth is, if Dawson can't land Hopkins and Gary Shaw can't make a miracle and convince Joe Calzaghe to end his short retirement, there's only one name at 175 pounds that really matters right now, and that's Glen Johnson, the unappreciated top fiver at the weight who's been there for years and never gone away.

Johnson and Dawson met in 2008, of course, with Dawson winning a debated unanimous decision. I've never held any great opinion on the judges' scorecards, because I had it a 114-114 draw, and I rarely score draws. The fight reminded me somewhat of Jermain Taylor-Winky Wright, with the younger Dawson winning in spurts, and the cagey Johnson taking him to school at other points.

Dawson-Johnson is an attractive rematch for fans, but Dawson has made no bones about it: He will not fight Johnson unless he absolutely has to. He has said that very plainly. There could be legitimate reasons here, like the fact that Glen is dangerous and is another guy whose name still means little (which is a damned shame, too), but I think it's plain old fear. Dawson wants no part of Johnson because Johnson never stopped coming in that fight. The old man wore the young buck out, and Dawson doesn't want to test that again.

I'm not saying this to call Dawson a coward, either. Boxing greats (not that Dawson is great yet) have avoided guys forever, and they'll continue to do so. It just is the way it is. Still, as I said before, you'd like to think that Dawson would want to settle the unfinished business. He just doesn't.

So with Calzaghe a totally unrealistic idea, B-Hop being B-Hop, and his unwillingness to fight Johnson again, who does that leave at 175 pounds?

Notes: I'm not counting Zsolt Erdei, because he doesn't have the stones to fight anywhere but Germany or Hungary, and I'm not counting Hugo Garay because I don't think HBO or anyone in America would be too psyched to sign off on that one.

Roy Jones Jr.: Please, for the love of God, no. Southpaw Dawson has enough speed and enough pop to cream Roy. Joe Calzaghe beat Jones up, and sure he punched "harder than normal" it appeared, but Calzaghe does not have Dawson's load 'em up power, and Jones doesn't have the reflexes to avoid that stuff anymore. There's one way this fight ends: Jones knocked out. It's not interesting, it's not a contest, it's just Dawson picking what's left of Jones' bones.

Tavoris Cloud: Sadly, nobody knows who the hell Cloud is. The IBF mandatory has been calling Dawson out lately, hoping to land a fight. It won't happen, because again, no one past the diehards know who Cloud (19-0, 18 KO) is. Personally I think it's a hell of a fight. You're telling me this thing couldn't head up a Boxing After Dark? They matched Jorge Arce and Julio Ler in the main event of B.A.D. not so long ago. Dawson-Cloud will cut the mustard.

Andre Ward or Edison Miranda: Whoever wins next Saturday on Showtime could well be in line for a title shot. Miranda (32-3, 28 KO) is always going to be an attractive TV opponent because there's always that chance he lands the bomb. Ward (18-0, 12 KO) is attractive because he's an ex-Olympian with good skills and that pretty unbeaten record. Neither one makes for a huge fight, but again: Boxing After Dark would be a great home for Dawson-Ward or Dawson-Miranda.

Shaun George: The one and only time most have seen George is when the Brooklynite battered Chris Byrd for nine rounds on ESPN2 last summer. He's fought just once since then, destroying Jaffa Ballogou in February, which took less than 90 seconds. Truthfully, George may be as hot as he's ever going to get, and his promoters might want to get him a shot at Dawson if that's at all possible. His two losses came at cruiserweight, and fighting in the light heavyweight neighborhood he's 9-0.

The Super Middleweight Idea: Dawson, really, would run into the same problems at 168. What does fighting, say, Jermain Taylor really do for Dawson? Is beating Taylor any different than beating the Ward-Miranda winner at this point? Dawson would be heavily favored against Taylor, and rightly so. The rest of the possibles at 168 -- IBF titlist Lucian Bute, the in-limbo Kessler, Green, Balzsay, even the hot Carl Froch -- aren't going to offer a ton more in terms of money. Why risk draining that weight, honestly, unless you're doing it high-reward?

I really do like Chad Dawson, think he's a good young fighter, but I get the feeling that HBO picked the wrong time to try to make him a star. He deserves it, but it's going to be a huge uphill battle because of one thing: The Fighter is there. The Fight, though, most likely is not.

Coverage starts at 9:30 ET with the fight on HBO. There are no televised undercard bouts tonight. The Hatton-Pacquiao replay will also air tonight, all two rounds of it. I'd expect they'll fill a healthy amount of time with discussion of that fight and of Chad Dawson.

Picks thread for the fight is here. You'll have until just before 9:30 to get your pick in.

via d.yimg.com

Chad Dawson doesn't just want to beat Antonio Tarver for a second time -- he wants to punish him. (Photo by Will Hart / Tom Hogan, via www.hbo.com)

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There's a great piece in USA Today about tomorrow night's Dawson-Tarver rematch that actually makes me sort of, kind of actually want to see this fight now. Juuuuust a little bit.

Some choice stuff:

"Nothing's really changed. It's another fight. Even though he has a rematch clause in the contract, I feel like he doesn't deserve a rematch," Dawson (27-0, 17 KOs) says.

...

"I can't stand him," Dawson says. "You watch the Rocky movie and you say it's just a movie. Then you meet him and you realize he's like that in real life. That's scary for a person to even act like that. I have no respect for him."

...

"He didn't want to get hit," says Dawson, who is an inch taller at 6-3. "Antonio Tarver is a very ignorant person. I really want to hurt him. I want to punish him.

"I know there's nothing that Tarver can do to stop me. If he comes into this fight thinking he's going to open up and throw more punches he's going to play right into my game plan."

Tarver's defense of his performance the first time is that he stayed back too long and didn't hit Dawson when he should have. Great call, Antonio. You sure nailed that one. He also notes how many of Dawson's punches he blocked, but that "to [Dawson's] credit," Dawson "looked busier."

...what?

He "looked" busier? He hit Tarver with good, clean shots way more than Tarver hit him with the same -- though Dawson did outland Tarver by a mere ten total punches, and was out-thrown by over 100. Tarver could find nothing to hit, speaking to his slowing hands.

You know, at the end of the day, I'm a fan, and Tarver's delusional antics have never been something I've warned to. Dawson is normally pretty mild-mannered for a dude nicknamed "Bad Chad," and he's saying here in frank terms that he "can't stand" Tarver, that Tarver is "ignorant," and that he "really want[s] to hurt him."

Tarver might be the rare case of a guy in boxing -- or any sport -- who is just as egotistical as he appears to be. Tarver has had genuine bad blood with Dawson, Roy Jones and even Jeff Lacy, who he never fought, and surely that's just scraping the tip of the iceberg.

Aw, but hang on a minute. USA Today did another piece yesterday focusing on Tarver, and he comes off -- dare I say it -- nice (at least for most of it):

Tarver reunited with former trainer Buddy McGirt, and has been working with McGirt and regular trainer Jimmy Williams in Vero Beach, Fla., where he says he was able to get away from all the distractions that affected him in the first fight.

"Buddy is a great trainer," says Tarver. "We've had a lot of success together, and I think along with Jimmy Williams, two great minds are better than one. Where Jimmy is weak at, as a trainer, Buddy has strengths. And vice versa. They complement each other.

"And just to be able to have two guys in that corner that I love, and believe in and trust in, I think it just helps me. I know Buddy's going to be cool and calm under pressure and that's what I need between those rounds."

Well maybe he's just a cuddly old guy...

Nah.

Note: The official picks thread for this fight is a few posts down, located here if you don't want to scroll.

(Photo by Will Hart, via www.hbo.com)

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Since we only did the one fight last week, I'm going to combine this one with Hatton-Pacquiao for next week's standings update.

Chad Dawson v. Antonio Tarver (Rematch, 12 Rounds - Dawson's IBF and IBO light heavyweight title)

Dawson easily outpointed Tarver last October, and by "easily" I mean "widely." Tarver barely dented Dawson, but he fought fairly well given his age, his recent performances, and his general overrated stature. It's not that Tarver hasn't done some really good stuff, but let's be honest: Outside of having Roy Jones' number (which he definitely did), what's he done that a lot of other guys haven't?

Dawson is 13 1/2 years Tarver's junior and has everything going for him in this fight. He beat him once without much trouble, is younger, stronger, faster, and didn't have any trouble with his fellow southpaw's style before.

But it's worth noting: Tarver has done very well in rematches over his career, and if he solves Dawson this time around, that's a big one. He lost to Eric Harding in 2000, beat him in 2002. He lost (controversially) to Jones in 2003, knocked him out in 2004, and beat him again in 2005. Between the second and third Jones fights, he lost to Glen Johnson, then rematched and beat him.

He's only lost to one guy so far that he didn't rematch: Bernard Hopkins, and he's not gonna get a chance to fix that one. With Dawson, he gets his chance again.

But I don't think he can do it. He's just not good enough anymore, and Dawson is at the age where if he's panning out as a real star fighter, he's just going to get better for the time being. This isn't a deep pick, and I don't expect many to go the other way: Dawson beats him again. This time, he stops him. Dawson TKO-10

Antonio Tarver and Chad Dawson will meet again this Saturday in a rematch that has sparked little interest. (Photo by Mary Ann Owen / via www.fightnews.com)

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Not all the big fights can be winners, and sometimes the best (like Hatton-Pacquiao) turn out in some ways to be duds. Sometimes the less anticipated (like Cunningham-Adamek) turn out to be Fight of the Year candidates.

With the boxing world still riding the high of Manny Pacquiao's stunning defeat of Ricky Hatton this past Saturday, there's still a lot to talk about. The futures of those fighters are of great interest to all of us.

Yet the calendar turns, and so must our attention to less glamorous affairs, if you want to be frank about it. This Saturday on HBO, IBF/IBO light heavyweight titlist "Bad" Chad Dawson moves over from Showtime for a rematch with former world champion Antonio Tarver.

For those that haven't followed the recent happenings of either man, this might seem a decent enough fight. The rematch was originally scheduled for March 14 but moved back to May 9 because of an injury to the 26-year old titlist. Tarver, now 40, is still among the division's top fighters.

But here's the rub: This is a rematch not of a competitive fight, but of an easy domination by Dawson, the type many expected would happen as Tarver ages less than gracefully inside the ring.

I scored that bout 119-108 for Dawson, who knocked Tarver down in the 12th and final round. Official judges' scorecards were barely closer: 118-109 and 117-110 (twice).

It was interesting to see Dawson, who had struggled with Glen Johnson previously, decimate Tarver, the veteran who has been in the ring with all of them, from Johnson to Jones to Hopkins. We saw Dawson mature into a potentially great fighter against a still-crafty veteran.

But once was all we needed to see. Twice? Most are going to pass.

HBO is not really at fault here. Any good network would want a young star with the potential of Dawson on their network, and in the hopes of making a better fight for him down the road, they accepted this rematch, which was exercised by Tarver as a probably (hopefully) last shot at glory. The fight is a business decision -- they take this one, they show Chad Dawson, they use up the last bit of Tarver's star power, and they move on to bigger and better things.

But if Hatton-Pacquiao was the boxing meal of the year for many who may now want to tune in to see the next "big" fight, Dawson-Tarver is not going to be the dessert they may have wanted. A good slugfest, a more important fight, a more intriguing fight would have been better. But this is the only dish on the menu. Take it or leave it.

Of course there are big fights after this one, including some great stuff in June (Cotto-Clottey, Klitschko-Haye, a nice Boxing After Dark doubleheader on the 27th), and all of that will serve, in some ways, as an appetizer for Mayweather-Marquez on July 18.

It's just not worth getting anyone's hopes up. Chances are you're going to see Chad Dawson spank Antonio Tarver for a second consecutive time this Saturday.

The silver lining? Dawson's a young fighter in whom it's more than worth taking an interest. He's Money Mayweather's favorite fighter (apart from Money Mayweather, of course), and so far he's been the real deal.

We'll have more on this fight and both fighters in the coming days, so stay tuned.

According to Dan Rafael's Notebook, the postponed rematch between Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver has been rescheduled for May 9. The fight was originally scheduled for March 14, but delayed due to a minor hand injury suffered by Dawson in training. They could put this fight on any day and it's no more interesting than it was when originally announced.

Also from Rafael's notes:

• Chris Arreola will likely face Jameel McCline on April 11. McCline, though big, is no threat to a guy as ferocious as Arreola. "The Nightmare" will likely just overwhelm him due to aggressiveness. I can already see McCline backing down, trying to cover up while Arreola throws massive right haymakers.
• Miguel Cotto will be back on June 13, as expected. He'll face either Joshua Clottey (my choice), Kermit Cintron or Andre Berto. He'd destroy Cintron.
• Showtime has agreed to televise Lamont Peterson-Willy Blain as the featured undercard bout on April 4, beneath the Bradley-Holt junior welterweight title unification. Details are being finalized with the camp for Blain (20-0, 3 KO).
• The Cesar Canchila-Giovanni Segura rematch will happen on March 14, not on the Tijuana Thunder PPV on March 28. The rematch also means Ivan Calderon is back to looking for an opponent. As much as I want Calderon to face a good opponent, Canchila-Segura definitely deserves a rematch.
• Alexander Povetkin will return to the ring on April 4 against ex-U.S. Olympian and powerless heavyweight Jason "Big Six" Estrada. Estrada talks a pretty good game and has talent, but Povetkin is in another class.

IBF light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson suffered a ligament injury in his right hand, and the unbeaten rising star's HBO debut is being postponed. Dawson was set to rematch Antonio Tarver, whom he easily outpointed last October.

Promoter Gary Shaw says that the injury is not a break, and that Dawson will be in a soft cast for two weeks before being able to continue training, making him absolutely unable to fight on March 14.

The HBO schedule really has few openings, at least as far as going unopposed is concerned. Bob Arum's Tijuana Thunder PPV is available on March 28 and HBO likely wouldn't run against that, and the following Saturday has Golden Boy's Lightweight Lightning show (distributed by HBO) as well as Timothy Bradley-Kendall Holt on Showtime. The network is running Paul Williams-Winky Wright on April 11, and Showtime may have Carl Froch-Jermain Taylor on April 18. Juan Manuel Lopez will be in action on HBO against Gerry Penalosa on the 25th. The Saturday after that is the Hatton-Pacquiao showdown.

It's going to be tough to find a spot for this rematch, not to mention it's not like this is a fight people are licking their chops to ever see again. If possible (and it likely is not), it wouldn't be bad to see this fight paired up with Williams-Wright on April 11. Neither fight belongs in Las Vegas and both are going to do rotten houses, so maybe combining the fights makes for a better live gate. I mean HBO's already on the hook for both fights anyway. But getting the promoters and fighters and arenas to agree to all that won't be so easy.

Apparently, the recession is hitting really hard, and that means it's a great time to break out your platinum card and win the eBay auction for advertisement space on Chad Dawson's shorts.

Starting bid is a mere $20,000.

The effects of the recession have taken a hit on the boxing world even for boxing icon and undisputed Light Heavyweight World Champion, ‘Bad Chad’ Dawson. Logo space on Dawson’s shorts is up for auction for his next fight. Dawson, will face Antonio Tarver for the second time on March 14^th, 2009 at the Palms in Las Vegas to defend his title.

In this financial crisis, even premium ad placements face challenges.  Dawson’s well known agent, manager and national marketing guru, Jay "Belly" Henderson, is combating the recession by auctioning off the logo space right here on EBay. Bidding will start at $20,000, a great value in today’s marketing environment.  Winners can advertise their business using the highly visibile and valuable space on Dawson's boxing shorts.

I'll admit I'm kinda psyched to see if something totally ludicrous will make it on there. Maybe Floyd will put an ad for Philthy Rich Records on Dawson's jock.

On March 14, 2009, I will turn 27 years old.

This year, the day after I turned 26, boxing's gift to me was the rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao, another thriller between arguably the world's two best pound-for-pound fighters. This time around, I won't be so lucky.

Dan Rafael reports that Antonio Tarver will get a rematch with Chad Dawson on March 14, the result of a contractual clause more than anyone on earth wanting to see Dawson against the 40-year old Tarver for a second time.

Dawson, you likely recall, easily outpointed Tarver and knocked him down in the 12th round of their long-awaited fight in October, which drew a paltry crowd at The Palms in Las Vegas and has to be considered a financial flop. But instead of Showtime -- the network that invested so heavily in trying to get the two to fight in the first place -- the rematch will take place on HBO's World Championship Boxing.

There are a few things hard to argue with, the first being Gary Shaw's claim that there just wasn't a big fight on the table for Dawson at the moment. For Tarver, it's the only fight he can take to restore his credibility as a truly top guy at 175 pounds. For Dawson, it's a case of getting this mandatory rematch out of the way and hoping to move on to bigger fights.

Dawson, who won the IBF and IBO light heavyweight titles from Tarver after dropping his WBC strap in order to take the fight, really shouldn't have any trouble with Tarver in the rematch given that he had none in the first fight, that he's younger, stronger, faster, and better, and considering Tarver hasn't beaten anyone of note since topping Glen Johnson and Roy Jones, Jr., in 2005.

To be bluntly honest, it's a crap fight I have little desire to see. Dawson handled Tarver with such ease the first time around, and it's not like Tarver isn't just getting older and slower. I'd have much rather Dawson fought Glen Johnson again, since that one was really competitive and Dawson's toughest test thus far by a mile, but the Tarver rematch was happening unless Tarver didn't want it. And Tarver, of course, does.