SONAHR: April 17, 2016 – In the sport of boxing, crossroads contests can have more than one meaning. Three such bouts took place on Saturday, each of which was significant in its own way.
Rising welterweight prospect Errol Spence Jr. went up against former junior-welterweight title-holder Chris Algieri in a testing-your-mettle type of crossroads. Spence came in highly touted but untested. Algieri won praise for his gutsy upset win over hard-punching Ruslan Provodnikov two years ago. But in subsequent bouts at welterweight, Algieri lost lopsided decisions to Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan. He was still expected to provide a measuring stick for the progress of Spence. Spence measured up pretty darn well, knocking Algieri down four times en route to a KO win in the fifth round. He thus did something neither Pacquiao nor Khan was able to do. The undefeated Spence?s big win places him in the midst of the pack of young welterweights seeking to take over the division in the wake of the retirements of Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Spence is about where current stars Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter were two or three years ago. If he follows their trajectory, he will win a title before long.
Krzysztof Glowacki?s defense of his WBO cruiserweight crown was a prove-you?re-no fluke type of crossroads for the champion, and a last-chance-for-glory crossroads for the challenger, who had won title in the division twice before a semi-successful foray at heavyweight, during which he floored future champion Tyson Fury before being stopped by the bigger man. Glowacki won his title by knocking out Marco Huck in a major upset. Could he do the same to the somewhat shopworn Cunningham? Well, not quite. The Pole knocked Cunningham down four times over the 12-round distance, but he was unable to get his opponent out of there. Still, Glowacki proved that he is not a one-shot wonder, and he can look forward to lucrative paydays in bouts with fellow Eastern European 200-pound stars Grigory Drozd and Dennis Lebedev. As for Cunningham, he has demonstrated his courage again and again. But he?s got little or no chance to win a title at either cruiserweight or heavyweight. He should consider hanging up his gloves.
When former light-heavyweight champion ?Bad? Chad Dawson stepped into the ring with the unheralded Cornelius White, Dawson?s crossroads question was a simple one: ?Am I still relevant?? Not so long ago, Dawson sat at the top of his division, and even made it onto some pound-for-pound rankings. He had dominated the light-heavyweights? old guard (Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson), and looked to be set for a long reign. But knockout losses to Andre Ward and Adonis Stevenson derailed the Dawson bandwagon, and he slipped into semi-obscurity. Now, Dawson is mounting a comeback. His job was to score an impressive win over an unimpressive opponent, and he did just that, stopping White in four one-sided rounds. Still, at this point Dawson is just another contender, albeit one with name value. To regain his title, he would have to topple current kingpin Sergey Kovalev ? a daunting task indeed. But he would also have to get in line behind Ward, who is currently angling for a shot at Kovalev. Dawson?s best bet is a rematch with WBC champion Stevenson, if only to demonstrate that he can last more than one round with the power-punching Haitian-Canadian, who seems reluctant to take on Kovalev. Crossroads contests are as much a part of boxing as superfights. And sometimes, they?re a lot more fun to watch.
