Do any of you remember Chad Dawson? I certainly do, but it's more like a fading memory of when he looked like he could be one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. Nowadays, that seems like it was much longer ago than it really was...But tonight, in a scheduled fight that hardly anyone knew about, Dawson will be ending a 14-month layoff since losing a split decision to Tommy Karpency in October 2014.
Dawson (32-4, 18 KOs) will be taking on Shujaa El Amin (12-8, 6 KOs), formerly Dion Savage, in a scheduled 10-rounder on the non-televised portion of tonight's PBC card on FS1 -- a card headlined by featherweights Juan Dominguez-Yenifel Vicent. All things considered, this really illustrates the dramatic fall from grace for a fighter who was basically the premier light heavyweight just a few shorts years ago.
Since beating Bernard Hopkins in their 2012 rematch, Dawson has gone 1-3, with his complete trashing at the hands of Andre Ward appearing to be the fight that put his promising career into a complete tailspin. Dropping down to super middleweight to face Andre Ward was perhaps one of those career missteps that he may never recover from -- Dawson just hasn't looked anything like his former self since then. Can Dawson get things back together? It feels like a long shot, and we certainly won't be able to judge based on his fight tonight against a ho-hum opponent that few will even get the chance to see.