Southpaw "Bad" Chad Dawson moved effortlessly around the ring while Glen "The Road Warrior" Johnson was mostly flat-footed and looked old.Dawson fired his right jab, following it up with left hooks and straight lefts. Dawson won the exchanges when they existed over the course of Saturday night's lopsided, 12-round unanimous decision over the aging Johnson before a partisan crowd at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
In victory, Dawson improved to 29-0 with 17 knockouts, earning the WBC's interim light heavyweight title while also defending his IBO crown, and in the process erasing all doubt as to who won the first Dawson-Johnson bout in April 2008.
Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KOs) had insisted that he was victorious in his last matchup with Dawson, when the Jamaica native lost by scores of 116-112 on all three cards in Miami, near his home in Hollywood, Fla.
"I knew that I was ahead the whole fight. I made him miss shot after shot. His big right hand wasn't there tonight. He was too slow. I saw everything," said Dawson, who won 115-113 on the cards of Duane Ford and Michael Pernick, and 117-111 on that of Glen Feldman, with FanHouse scoring the fight a shutout for Dawson, 120-108.
"I did what I said that I was going to do after the fight. I wanted to out-box him, use my legs. I had youth on my side. I had every advantage," said Dawson, a resident of New Haven, Conn. "It was all about me just using all of the tools that I have and applying them to this fight."
The 40-year-old Johnson was out-landed 246-to-167 overall, and 142-90 in power punches by the 27-year-old Dawson.
According to CompuBox, Dawson landed 105 times to Johnon's chin, and a total of 71 times to either side of the challenger's head.
"I try to get better every fight. I try to show something new every fight. I know that the last fight, you guys were saying that I lose steam in the second half of the fight," said Dawson, whose bout was televised on HBO.
"I tried not to let that happen in this fight. So I went in, out-boxed him every round, used my jab, used my speed, my legs and outclassed him," said Dawson, who established himself as the premiere 175-pounder in the world.
"That's what we worked on. I worked hard in the gym, sparred four-minute rounds with 30 second rest in-between, so this was nothing," said Dawson. "Three minutes, with a minute rest in between, I worked hard, busted my butt and I got the victory."
Dawson also prevented Johnson from becoming the oldest man to earn a version of the light heavyweight championship. Johnson was trying to surpass Bob Fitzimmons as the oldest man to win a light heavyweight crown.
Johnson has been stopped just once in his career, in the 11th round by Bernard Hopkins in July 1997. Johnson was named the 2004 Fighter of the Year."This chapter of my book is closed. The Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver chapter is closed," said Dawson, who has vanquished both Johnson and former world champion Tarver twice. "Now I can move on and fight some new faces, and reclaim my spot at the top."
Dawson entered the ring wearing the No. 6 on his robe, in honor of former UCONN football player, Jasper Howard, who was killed during an an on-campus party last month.
Dawson and promoter Gary Shaw will now focus on the options for his future.
There is Canada's 27-year-old WBC titlist, Jean Pascal (24-1, 16 KOs), who will fight Adrian Diaconu (26-1, 15 KOs) in a Dec. 11 rematch of Pascal's unanimous decision victory in June.
"I think it might be Pascal," said Shaw, who may also pursue possible bouts against Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones, who will likely face each other early in 2010. Hopkins turns 45 on Jan 15, and Jones turns 41 on Jan. 16.
"Of course there is always Roy Jones, who would be my first choice, or Hopkins," said Shaw. "Or maybe some 168-pounder, like Lucian Bute."
The Canada-based Bute (24-0, 19 KOs) will put his IBF crown on the line against Librado Andrade (28-1, 21 KOs) on Nov. 28.
"If I had my wish to fight one fight, it would be Bernard Hopkins. That's the guy. He's been rated No. 1 for like a year and a half now, and I've been rated No. 2 for like two years. It's time for him to get off," said Dawson.
"If not Hopkins, then definitely the Pascal fight," said Dawson. "He's a great fighter and an exciting fighter, and I think that me and him would make a great fight."
If not, there is Germany's 35-year-old WBO champion Zsolt Erdei (30-0, 17 KOs), who will go after the WBC cruiswerweight (200 pounds) title against Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-1, 10 KOs) on Nov. 21.
Or Dawson could chase the winner of Showtime's Super Six Tournament, featuring WBC and WBA super middleweight champions Carl Froch of England and Mikkel Kessler of Denmark, as well as former middleweight (160) titlist Arthur Abraham, and former Olympic gold and bronze medalists Andrew Ward, and, Andre Dirrell, respectively.
Although The Super Six won't likely be completed until early 2011, there could soon be an opening, considering the expected withdrawal of former undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor following his fourth loss in his past five bouts, and his third knockout defeat and second straight stoppage loss during that time.
