Watching the Chad Dawson versus Antonio Tarver II fight, from the opening bell one thing is obvious from: Dawson should win this fight. The reasons are many:

1) Dawson is twenty six years old to Tarver's forty

2) Dawson's hands are three times as fast as Tarver's

3) Dawson throws combinations whereas Tarver throws 1-2s

Still, merely knowing that one fighter should win and probably is winning doesn't necessarily mean that when forced to judge round by round that things will fall in line so neatly.

Clearly two of the three HBO announcers, Emmanuel Steward possibly being the exception wanted Chad Dawson to win this fight. As such, they cheerleaded Dawson's performance while scoffing at old man Tarver. HBO unofficial scorer, Harold Lederman likewise heralded the younger man. Even the official judges had Dawson winning easily. Still, I wasn't so sure.

The four criteria in judging a boxing match are:

1) Clean Punching

2) Effective Aggressiveness

3) Ring Generalship

4) Defense

There are numerous ways to interpret these criteria, especially in very close rounds. In those situations, I have heard an addage that I find particularly interesting for describing the victor in a particular round: which fighter would you rather be when the bell sounds? In the case of Dawson Vs. Tarver II, I'm not sure I would be particularly pleased being either man after any of these rounds. Certainly both showed good defense, had spurts of effective aggressiveness and ring generalship, but neither, despite what the punch stats may show were very effective in landing clean punches.

In the end I nearly scored the fight a draw with most rounds almost too close to call, a far cry from the landslide the other judges seemed to witness.

Am I right that this was indeed an extremely close fight? Or are the judges, the announcers, and HBO's Lederman correct?

I say, "watch the fight without the sound, without the notion that Dawson is the better fighter and judge it that way." Only then will an accurate scorecard be possible.

Dawson moves to 28-0 (17 KO)

Tarver falls to 27-6 (19 KO)

Neither fighter was down during the bout.

My Scoring of the Fight: