Boxing News Boxing News
Last night at the XL Centre in Hartford, CT, Interim WBC and IBO light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson outpointed challenger Glen Johnson in a rematch fought over the full 12 round distance.
The pair first clashed in April, 2008 when Johnson forced an all-action thriller upon his younger, taller adversary but this time southpaw Dawson wisely kept his 40 year old rival largely on the outside, much to Johnson’s disadvantage.
Dawson, 27, used excellent footwork to stay away from exchanges, picking off the challenger during the odd moments that Johnson managed to close distance.
After their first bout was waged at much closer quarters and resulted in a controversial victory for Dawson, the champion stuck to his strengths and decided not to take risks.
After 12 rounds of very little fireworks, Dawson won a points verdict 117-111 and 115-113 twice, retaining the IBO and Interim WBC crowns.
“Bad Chad” improves to 29-0 (17), and after two consecutive rematches against aging competition could be looking forward to the possibility of unification matches against IBF titlist Tarvoris Cloud or WBC king Jean Pascal, both 27 years of age.
On the undercard, light middleweight Alfredo Angulo, 17-1 (14), ended the Cinderella run of Harry Joe Yorgey, 22-1-1 (10), with a brutal third round KO after dropping Yorgey twice in the second.
Angulo captures the Interim WBO belt with the victory and could be in line to challenge undefeated WBO champion Sergiy Dzinziruk, who has not fought since outpointing Joel Julio a year ago.
