When Chad Dawson was declared a unanimous decision winner over Glen Johnson in April of 2008 by three identical scores of 116-112, there was a lot of room for argument – and not just from Johnson.

Fans that saw Dawson winning the fight thought it was closer than eight rounds to four. Others thought a draw would have been the fairest verdict. And still others thought Johnson deserved the win.

With such discrepancy – and the fact that the first fight had been a very good one – a rematch was logical. And, after scoring two wins over Antonio Tarver and without a bigger name opponent on the horizon, the rematch became necessary for Dawson. Not only was it the best fight he could get; it was also an opportunity to silence his doubters with a much more convincing win.

Saturday night, he delivered that win.

The first fight had taken place on Johnson’s turf in his home state of Florida. But the rematch was held in Hartford, Connecticut, near Dawson’s hometown of New Haven.

Johnson quickly pressured Dawson in round one, sticking in jabs to the body and right hands to the head to win the first minute of the fight. Dawson then landed a looping left hand over the side of the head that moved Johnson back. Two jabs caught Johnson’s attention upstairs, enabling Dawson to smash in two straight lefts to the body. Johnson wasn’t going away, though, and scored with a body shot, followed by a snapping jab. In a close opening round, Dawson’s more powerful shots seemed to win out.

Dawson was content to use nothing but the jab early in round two, but when Johnson landed his own jab, Dawson buried in a body shot in return. Johnson answered with several slapping jabs to the face of Dawson, who wasn’t doing much to defend against them. Dawson then blasted in another body shot, followed by a hard straight left across the face. With ten seconds to go and the round pretty close, Dawson let his hands go, knocking Johnson off balance with a right hook.

A minute into round three, Dawson tagged Johnson with a straight left through the guard. A hard uppercut followed, and Dawson added a combination to the body as Johnson covered up with his gloves. They traded jabs, and Johnson got in a straight right to the body. One to the face of Dawson came next, but Dawson came back, chopping away at Johnson’s body. They finished the round battling it out, but it was Dawson’s round again.

Johnson continued to stalk Dawson in round four, getting in some straight rights to the body. Dawson jabbed the body of Johnson but got tagged by a jab upstairs in return. For the second half of the round, Dawson stood his ground and landed cleanly on Johnson, scoring with straight lefts and jabs and moving out of range whenever Johnson tried to answer. A left to the body knocked Johnson off balance.

In the corner between rounds, Johnson gave some insight as to why he always thinks he gets robbed when he loses a decision. He asked his corner whether or not he had won all four rounds. Fortunately, his trainers did the right thing and told him the complete opposite was true – that he had lost every round. Johnson, of course, acted surprised at the news.

Dawson got on his bicycle in round five, stopping only to drill Johnson with a straight left through the gloves after thirty seconds. Johnson’s constant pressure eventually allowed him to clock Dawson with a good straight right that turned his head. The Hartford fans began to boo as Dawson moved around the ring, shooting jabs before smashing in another straight left. Even though he fought mostly in reverse, Dawson still appeared to edge the round with the better punches.

Johnson pushed the jab to begin round six, but Dawson clipped him with a counter straight left square on the nose. They traded jabs across the face, and Johnson got in a body shot and another jab to turn Dawson’s head. Another jab landed, followed by a straight right to the body of Dawson. Johnson added a body shot and a right across the face. And just when it seemed Dawson had fallen into a lapse, he drilled Johnson with a hard one-two through the gloves that snapped Johnson’s head back – the best punch of the night. It may have been enough to give Dawson the round, though Johnson far outworked him for the first time all night.

Round seven was one of the more competitive rounds of the fight, with each man doing good work. But Dawson’s versatility carried the day in that round as well as he was able to do more, including beating on Johnson’s body. Dawson also landed a jab on Johnson just after the bell for good measure. It was the same story in round eight, where it would have been hard to choose the slapping punches of Johnson over the crisp, snapping punches of Dawson.

Midway through round nine, Johnson landed his best shot of the night – a long right hand that snapped Dawson’s head back. For Dawson backers, it had to have been a scary moment, considering it was round ten of the first fight when Johnson had Dawson in serious trouble after a similar shot. This time, however, Dawson fired back with a five-punch rally to stunt Johnson’s assault.

After that, Dawson covered up and allowed Johnson to beat into and around his gloves. Eventually, Johnson got through with another right and, later, another before the bell to possibly just take the round from Dawson, who was relatively inactive and hit mostly glove when he threw.

Johnson carried some of that momentum into round ten, landing a good right hand to the head before burying in a few more on a defensive Dawson. Dawson fired back with a six-punch rally that made Johnson wobble a bit, though nothing landed all too clean. When targeting the body, however, Dawson was very effective, backing Johnson off and making him cover up. The body work was also slowing Johnson down as evidenced by the fact that Dawson was able to land several clean left hands to end the round.

A tiring Johnson managed to pressure Dawson throughout round eleven, and Dawson didn’t seem to mind as he moved around the ring fluidly and scored with quality punches. During the last minute of the round, the left hands and uppercuts started to fall in place on the head of Johnson, but Johnson refused to go away. Going into the twelfth round, he unquestionably needed a knockout.

In a fight that had seen no clinches whatsoever, Referee Michael Ortega’s first command to both men since his instructions prior to the fight was that they touch gloves to begin the last round. From there, Johnson bit down and banged away with the right hand. Dawson, on the other hand, had set himself on cruise control and made sure not to get caught with anything big.

The home state fans implored Dawson to finish strong by chanting his name, but he really didn’t need to, and he knew it. It wasn’t until under a minute left that Dawson really nailed Johnson with anything big – a hard straight left that snapped his head back. At the final bell, both men threw their hands up in victory, Johnson probably celebrating having won the last round more than anything else.

Dawson’s promoter, Gary Shaw, who had a lot of problems with Johnson claiming he won the first fight, leaned over the ropes and shouted at the HBO commentators, gesturing to Johnson and asking, “Does he think he won that one?” And surely, even Johnson couldn’t have seen it going his way.

The scores actually came out a lot closer than they had any right to be, with two judges seeing it 115-113 and one seeing it 117-111, all in favor of Dawson. Johnson reacted by giving a nod to Dawson after the announcement as if to acknowledge him as the better man the second time around. The matter had been settled.

With Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. still the two biggest names in the light heavyweight division and fighting one another early in 2010, Dawson is left without a dance partner for the foreseeable future – which is how he ended up rematching Johnson in the first place. HBO seems to be pushing the idea of matching Dawson against the winner of the Jean Pascal-Adrian Diaconu rematch next month.

While that fight would be interesting enough, there has also been talk of Dawson taking the place of Jermain Taylor in Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic, pitting the world’s best super middleweights against one another. Taylor was brutally knocked out by Arthur Abraham last month, and there have rumors of him pulling out of the tournament. Dawson would be the best substitute possible if it happens.

ANGULO WRECKS YORGEY IN BRUTAL KNOCKOUT

On the undercard, junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo got his second win in a row since losing to Kermit Cintron back in May, and it came with a devastating third round knockout over Harry Joe Yorgey.

Yorgey, an undefeated prospect, got all he could handle from Angulo from the opening bell. Yorgey tried to box and use lateral movement, but Angulo was able to pressure him to the ropes and get his shots in to win the first round.

In round two, Yorgey made a stand by landing a solid right hand and an uppercut. Neither fazed Angulo, however, who went on to corner Yorgey and drill him with a hard right that snapped his head straight back. Yorgey looked almost out on his feet as he slumped into the corner, where Angulo battered him further. Yorgey somehow fought back but eventually went down on a knee against the ropes.

When he stood up after the count of five, Yorgey chose to argue with Referee Johnny Callas about taking a shot on the back of the head. Replays later confirmed that he had gone down on clean blows. In any event, Angulo went back to pounding on Yorgey in the same round.

At one point, Yorgey turned his back to Angulo, and Callas separated the fighters for no apparent reason. Callas went so far as to hold Angulo back while Yorgey staggered across the ring and into a corner, his legs no longer under him. Inexplicably, Callas failed to rule it a knockdown and instead gave Yorgey crucial time to recover.

Angulo again continued to pound his foe when the action resumed, sending Yorgey back to his corner bleeding from the nose. Rather than think about stopping the fight, his trainer, Jack Loew, strangely chose to spend the time between rounds arguing with Callas, who had actually helped his fighter out.

Just seconds into round three, Angulo sent Yorgey staggering sideways with a right to the head. Yorgey fought back valiantly but got clipped again and grabbed Angulo around the waist, driving him back across the ring. Yorgey dropped to his knees, but Callas continued his bizarre officiating by not calling another knockdown.

Sensing that Callas was bent on letting Yorgey be annihilated, Angulo had to finish the job on his own. And he did in emphatic fashion, snapping Yorgey’s head straight back with a big left hook against the ropes. Yorgey’s hands dropped as he was out on his feet, but Angulo clocked him with another right on the way down. Yorgey collapsed hard on his back, his eyes rolled back in his head, and Callas finally stopped the massacre.

Ringside doctors immediately rushed to Yorgey’s side, keeping his neck still. Within seconds, they had him talking. And after a few minutes, he was on his stool and upset about the outcome.

The win was exactly what Angulo needed to keep himself fresh in the minds of boxing fans and the organizations that televise fights. He got his second win in a row and looked impressive doing it. The knockout will no doubt be considered among the best of the year, which means it will be seen over and over in the months to come.

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