All Sports Blog

Last night in Montreal, Canada, Jean Pascal scored a unanimous decision win over Chad Dawson for the WBC, IBO and Ring Magazine light-heavyweight titles, in an intriguing fight which ended prematurely due to an accidental headbutt opening a nasty cut over Dawson's right eye.

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.

Pascal shocks Dawson but we are denied the grandstand finish

Alexander was busy but innacurate

As a boxing fan, you know it is always going to be difficult for a foreign fighter to beat a hometown fighter in his own back yard. It is almost something you just take for granted, especially when the hometown fighter is the title holder and a touted future superstar of the game. It is clear that Devon Alexander's future plans had already been made before his fight with Andriy Kotelnik on Saturday night and HBO and Don King promotions were ensuring that a Timothy Bradley - Alexander fight would not run into any hitches.

It's the only explanation I can come up with because Kotelnik clearly should have won that fight, even though he went down 116-112 on all three judges scorecards. While watching the fight and knowing how hard it would be for Kotelnik to convince the judges, even though I had him a good bit ahead after 9 rounds I thought the fight was probably about 50-50 at that stage and there was still a good possibility they would deny him of the victory. Then, after he continued to dominate the final 3 rounds I thought SURELY they cannot take this victory away from him, SURELY despite any efforts to sway their scores in Alexander's favour they have to give it to Kotelnik because it's just too obvious that he was the much better fighter.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The body language of the two fighters said it all in the final rounds. Alexander was tired, battered and bruised. He looked demoralised between rounds. He looked a beaten man. Meanwhile, Kotelnik was energised. He was fresh, his face unmarked. Even when he heard that all three judges had scored the fight 116-112 he was confident that it would be in his favour. The look of shock on his face when Alexander was announced the victor was not engineered, it wasn't faked, it was real. I was shocked in the same way, but it soon turned to anger at another laughable decision to a more marketable fighter. Alexander is young and has a great deal of potential, but he lost that fight.

The punchstats confirm this, despite not showing that Kotelnik also landed the cleaner shots by far. Alexander threw over 300 punches more than Kotelnik but landed 23 less giving a connect percentage of 18% compared to 29% for Kotelnik.

Its not fair because these are people's livelihoods we are dealing with here. Kotelnik went to the USA for the first time and put on a boxing clinic and what happens? Not only does he not get the title that should be his or the scalp of a big name on his resume, he will struggle to get a big payday anytime soon because he has shown he is a dangerous opponent and the big names will be reluctant to face him. Where is the justice? He deserves a rematch but he wont get it. Alexander would be stupid to give him one because he was figured out. Once a counter-puncher figures you out, you're in big trouble.

Devon Alexander proceeded to call out Bradley after the fight, sporting a ready-made t-shirt to do so. Embarrassing given what had gone on before.

One last point I have to make is Harold Lederman's scorecard which read 117-111 in favour of Alexander, possibly one of the worst scorecards I have ever seen. He kept banging on about Alexander being the more active fighter. I would love to ask him since when did throwing punches win you points? Its punches landed that matter. I think HBO should take a serious look at his scoring of that fight.

Alexander gets gift decision against Kotelnik

It's a bit frustrating being a boxing fan at the minute with some of the things that have been going on. There seems to be a trend developing where boxers just move from weight class to weight class, handpicking opponents and fighting for paper titles to decorate their resumes. Of course, money has always been the focal point of any boxer's career but it is getting to the point where we are not seeing the best boxers given the chance to prove themselves as the ranking systems are nigh on meaningless.

When is the last time a big fight has been scheduled because one fighter was the mandatory challenger to another fighter's belt? It doesn't happen that often nowadays because the belts just dont mean that much anymore. For example, in his recent fight with Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Jr. refused to pay the 3% WBA sanctioning fee to fight for the title that night. Of course, this causes havoc because they couldn't really let Shane keep the belt when he lost the fight so its a bit of a farce that there is currently no holder of the belt. Floyd had good reason not to want to part with 3% of the takings (which is a lot of money in a Mayweather fight). There are so many different belts for every weight class that the titles have become diluted.

And the governing bodies are not helping themselves with some of the fights they are sanctioning. Manny Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto at a catchweight of 145lbs for the WBO Welterweight title, even though the limit for that weight class is 147lbs. Is this fair? How can a title be on the line when the fighters are not allowed to fight at the weight limit of that title's weight class? Now, it seems, Pacquiao will be fighting for the vacant WBC Super-Welterweight title against Antonio Margarito at a catchweight of 150lbs when the limit is 154lbs. Thats closer to Welterweight than Super-Welterweight! Not to mention the fact that Margarito should be banned from the ring after trying to use illegal handwraps or that it seems Top Rank promoted fighters are only allowed to fight each other. There are plenty of fighters who are able and willing to fight at 154lbs and are more deserving of a shot at the title than Pacquiao. If you cant fight at a weight class then you should stay out of the weight class, in my opinion. The WBC is more interested in getting a bigger paycheck than the health of the sport it seems.

As long as the governing bodies allow these shams of fights to happen, the more promoters and boxers will take advantage of it. They have lost the respect of the fighters and the boxing public and have let the sport descend into a money-making farce where the top names can face who they want at whatever weight class they choose, while the better boxers (and more dangerous opponents) are left out in the cold due to an ineffectual rankings system.

Governing bodies losing control of boxing