Ward vs Dawson: Fight Looking More and More Likely as Ward Asks WBC For Approval

Andre Ward, who holds the WBC and WBA super middleweight titles, has reportedly contacted the WBC about reinstating him as full "world champion" rather than "champion in recess," according to promoter Yvon Michel, who was trying to get his fighter, Adonis Stevenson, into a vacant title fight.

This nearly confirms two things: Ward vs Chad Dawson is going to happen on September 8, which is pretty much only lacking an official announcement at this point, and the fight will be at 168 pounds, as Dawson will move down from light heavyweight as promised to make the fight a reality.

The WBC had ordered a vacant title fight between Anthony Dirrell and Nikola Sjekloca, but Dirrell suffered injuries in a motorcycle crash that reportedly will keep him out about six months.

Michel says the WBC is waiting to see how long Dirrell will be out before making any move, and that includes Michel begging asking the sanctioning body to go ahead with an interim title fight with Stevenson involved, which makes all the boxing sense in the world, since the guy who actually holds the belt was only bumped to "in recess" so that the WBC could bleed money from someone else, and now that he's asking for that to be lifted, yeah, let's have an "interim" title fight. "Interim" is a funny word in boxing circles.

Anyway, Ward (25-0, 13 KO) and Dawson (31-1, 17 KO) appear headed for a collision in September, like it or not. The 29-year-old Dawson boiling down to 168 for the first time since 2006 does make it kind of interesting, plus there's the fact that it's the 175-pound "man" against the 168-pound "man."

Dawson's trainer John Scully has openly said he's not wild about Dawson going down a division for this fight, but it looks like it's happening. All Team Dawson can do now is hope Chad hasn't made a bad error in judgment, and get him ready as best they can.