Having racked up the rounds early in the fight, Pascal looked to be running out of steam and Dawson was coming on strong in the championship rounds. Whether Pascal would have been able to last the four remaining minutes we will never know.
Pascal was able to steal rounds in the fight with occasional flurries while Dawson waited too long for things to happen. Dawson's jab was moderately successful but he failed to follow it up often enough with the straight-left, even though he looked dangerous when he did throw it. He could not figure out a strategy to deal with Pascal leaping forward with wild hooks until it was too late.
When Pascal charged forward in this way, often he was not landing anything clean but it got the crowd cheering and this sometimes convinces the judges that the punches were landing. At the same time, Dawson's defence for this was to crouch and lean his head, which as well as making it look sometimes that the punches were landing, it also prevented him from throwing back while in that position. Indeed, in the middle rounds he did get caught clean a few times and was rocked pretty bad at least once in the fight, where he looked on unsteady legs.
In the 11th round, it seemed to click with Dawson that he was going to lose the fight unless he stepped it up in a big way and he came out swinging, hurting Pascal with a barrage of straight lefts and hooks around the guard. Pascal managed to swivel off the ropes and stay upright, but shortly after, when he was leaping forward to launch his next flurry, he was caught with a massive counter left uppercut which stopped him dead in his tracks. He was stunned BAD. Dawson realised it and took a step forward, then looked at the ref for some reason, then moved forward but DIDN'T THROW and then backed off. It showed an incredible lack of a killer instinct as Pascal was just hovering like a zombie almost begging to be finished off.
Ultimately, it ended up costing Dawson as the clash of heads happened seconds later which forced the referee to call a halt to proceedings on doctor's orders.
The judges scored the fight 106-103, 106-103 and 108-101. I scored it 106-104 to Pascal.
Dawson complained after the fight that Pascal was holding and butting him all night but I didn't see much evidence for it. If anything, I noticed that Dawson looked very uncomfortable when Pascal got inside on him and he didn't really know how to deal with it. And it was only very late in the fight when he looked likely to catch Pascal on the way in, the big uppercut he eventually landed was there all night for him but he never threw it.
Pascal, to his credit, fought a good tactical fight and he did it in a disciplined manner. However, I feel that if there is a rematch then you have to favour Dawson who I still believe is the better boxer despite this lacklustre showing.
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