Tommy Karpency upsets Chad Dawson on Showtime

Chad Dawson hurt his shoulder in round three and wound up fighting most of tonight's bout with just his jabbing right hand, but the upset scored by Tommy Karpency is a shocker all the same, as the 10-to-1 underdog pulled out a split decision win on scores of 96-94, 96-94, and 94-96. BLH had it 95-95.

Karpency (24-4-1, 14 KO) did well early, as he may have dropped the opening round with Dawson (32-4, 18 KO) doing some good body work, but Karpency took control of the fight in the third and fourth rounds, particularly. Dawson's left hand became a non-factor in the third, as mentioned, but there wasn't really much change in the way Karpency attacked, either. Even before the injury, it appeared that Dawson just wasn't sharp, didn't seem to have his old reflexes, and was no longer the fighter he was at his peak.

Dawson, 32, was indignant after the loss when talking to Showtime's Steve Farhood.

"I hurt my shoulder in the third round. I was one-handed, but I landed more jabs than he landed punches. Come on. That's bullshit. That's fuckin' bullshit, man. That's bullshit," he said."

"They must want me out the game, I dunno. They must want me out of here," he added. Farhood pointed out that the punch stats only slightly favored Dawson, by a total of just a few punches overall, but Dawson continued to point to his jab as reason that he won.

Karpency, 28, was thrilled with what is easily the biggest win of his career.

"He's a great fighter. I knew I did enough to win, and thankfully the judges got it right. It was a close fight, but I believe I won hands down. I came into this fight on a little bit of short notice and I had to pace myself to really make my punches count," he told Farhood.

"I landed all the power throughout the fight, I buzzed him a couple times. I deserved the win."

Karpency believes he deserves mention with the world's top light heavyweights with this win, and he doesn't think he got the duke just because Dawson was hurt, or because he's "shot."

"I believe that I belong in the top 10 light heavyweights in the world. He's the last man to beat Bernard Hopkins. He's had a couple losses, but that doesn't mean his skills are gone," he added.

How did you score tonight's fight, and can Dawson possibly rebound from this and move forward?