Emotions are a difficult thing for fighters. A fighter who enters the ring without enough emotion will often look lethargic, as if he?s going through the motions. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a fighter who steps between the ropes too emotional can often times become reckless, or lack focus and cost points or a fight.
At different times Chad Dawson has been accused of being both lethargic, and too emotional. There is nothing in boxing that gets Chad Dawson more emotional than Bernard Hopkins.
Back in October 2009 I went to meet up with ?Bad? Chad at an open workout as he prepared for his second bout with Glen Johnson (the fight took place on 11/7/2009 in Hartford). This was at the height of the Dawson rise. He had become the light heavyweight champion with a great victory over Tomasz Adamek in February 2007, and was on a run of five (5) consecutive title defenses (he would be successful over Johnson to make it six). Dawson had just finished his two fight series against Antonio Tarver, the second fight being so ugly and so lopsided that it essentially sent Tarver out of the ring and into the announce booth (until recently at least), and the discussion center on who the top dog in the light heavyweight division was, Chad Dawson or Bernard Hopkins?
Hopkins for his part had been out of the ring since the ?shocking? destruction of Kelly Pavlik in October 2008, but The Ring and most sanctioning bodies continued to list him as the guy at 175 pounds, a fact that bothered Chad Dawson. Dawson had made it a point to call out Hopkins; it was the fight he wanted more than any other. In Dawson?s mind (and in mine) there had been no reason for a second Tarver fight, or a second Johnson fight. However, in the (at the time) old age group of light heavyweight contenders there simply wasn?t anyone out there for him to fight ? because Bernard wouldn?t take the bait.
So, in October 2011 you had the culmination of 2+ years of chasing when Hopkins finally stepped into the ring with Chad Dawson, and Dawson knew all about the tactics that Hopkins would utilize, and frankly, his emotions probably got the best of him when he shrugged Bernard off his back to the canvas and gave Hopkins an out (legitimate or not) from the fight. When it came time for the rematch you had to know that Dawson would be very emotional, he felt that Hopkins ducked him again, and his now three year quest to fight, and beat, Bernard Hopkins came down to this opportunity.
That Dawson was able to harness his emotions played a huge role in how he was able to overcome Hopkins to regain the light heavyweight championship in Atlantic City, and the reason that Dawson was able to remain so calm, was the presence in his corner, John Scully. As a New England boxing writer I?ve covered a ton of fights that Scully has been involved in, and as soon as Chad Dawson scored the majority decision victory I arranged to speak to Scully about his work in the corner. The first thing I had to know was whether Scully was paying special attention to Dawson?s emotional state in the ring.
?I noticed that several times when Bernard and him got tangled up and when they both fell to the canvas that Chad came out of the clinches with a frustrated look on his face and I felt that with each small incident the feelings would build up inside of him and we would run the risk of exploding at some point? said Scully. ?So basically it was a thing where I felt I had to sort of reel him in a bit and keep reminding him to stay the course. We talked about it in the gym leading up to the fight, what to expect from Bernard and how we needed to react. Above all else, besides your anger and frustration at what he does, you still have to win the fight so it makes no sense to let things you can?t control cause you to implode. Self control and discipline in instances like those are definite traits of a champion and Chad is definitely one of those.?
When you step into the ring with Bernard Hopkins, especially in a title fight at this point in his career the biggest ?trick? that you must be aware of is the head butt, and two head butts busted Dawson open. As Scully said, it was the self control that they practiced in the gym that ultimately made the biggest impact. ?The fact of the matter is that I don?t even think Bernard tries to be a dirty fighter anymore as much as these things he does are just a part of him now. It just comes to him as easily as it does for other people to put their hands up when punched at. So you have to go in knowing what?s coming and that if you want to beat this man you have to have extra discipline and self control. It?s obviously in Chad, he?s capable of staying focused, but sometimes you still have to be there to keep an eye on his human tendencies to react as a non-boxer would.?
Of course maintaining discipline, avoiding the head butts and showing good self control only get you so far in boxing. If you?re not going to knock someone out (and face it, Bernard Hopkins isn?t getting knocked out) then you have to worry about the judges. Dawson/Hopkins 2 seemed so lopsided that there was little doubt that Dawson would win, and then the first scorecard was read?114-114 draw. As a writer and a fan I immediately feared the worse (especially in light of Paul Williams recent Atlantic City gift), but imagine being in the position of the person who fears having a victory stolen from him. ?I definitely thought that [Dawson would get screwed on the cards] even more than the average person watching the fight may have because the truth is I was warned about that judge two days before the fight by a man who I won?t name here, but he?s someone who is a recognizable name in the boxing world, and he expressed to me his concerns about this guy. So in light of that, when I heard that first score, I instantly thought of the conversation we?d had two days earlier. I had to hold my breath for the next two scores, definitely.?
But when the final scores were read, Dawson had the win he had been searched for and John Scully joined a new group, trainers who have been in the corner for more than one of their charges becoming world champion. I?ve watched Hopkins/Dawson II twice now and my feelings have not changed, John Scully?s calming presence in the corner was a major factor in Chad Dawson being able to maintain self control and win a dominating victory over Bernard Hopkins. Having seen Scully stand next to two different fighters who won world championships I had to know how this victory compared to his first world title win, with Jose Antonio Rivera (May 6, 2006).
?It was very similar in many ways, that feeling of realizing your guy just won the championship of the whole world, but it was also a bit different because Jose was a guy who was a pro for a long time before he got his big shot on Showtime and he was also a guy who was probably an underdog in the fight where he beat (Alejandro) Terra Garcia for the WBA Junior Middleweight title. Jose was a very aggressive and relentless guy and we knew if he was going to win he was going to have really grind it out in there and work hard every round for it. He came through with a stellar performance that night and won going away and it was really a thrill afterwards because, like I say, this is a guy who came up the hard way in the game and after six or seven years in the game he wasn?t even a ranked fighter yet. He was sort of a late bloomer, I guess, and he won the title in the performance of his career that came fourteen years in. Chad on the other hand was considered one of the elite guys at 175 coming in and even though beating Bernard was a huge accomplishment it was still a thing where Chad had successfully been on the big stage numerous times already. So both victories were huge and were cause for extreme happiness and excitement but it was just two guys coming in under different circumstances. Kind of like different kinds of the same happiness.?
Ultimately the one similarity between Jose Antonio Rivera and Chad Dawson?s respective world title victories was the corner work by John Scully. On this night he wasn?t the most revered trainer involving (Naazim Richardson in Hopkins corner) and he doesn?t have a bookshelf full of Trainer of the Year awards, but for 12 rounds, John Scully did as good a job as anyone in boxing getting his guy to where he needed to be to knock off a living legend.
