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HBO World Championship Boxing report PDF Print E-mail
HBO World Championship Boxing Recap
 
November 7, 2009
XL Center-Hartford, Connecticut
 
 
 
This event is being staged in Connecticut to try and establish Chad Dawson as a viable local draw. Unfortunately, he appears to have only drawn a lot of empty seats. The attendance for this event is 5,230. That is not necessarily the paid attendance and this building has a normal capacity of 16,500.
 
 
 
1. Interim WBO Junior Middleweight (154 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:
Alfredo Angulo (16-1, 13 KO's, 153.5 pounds) vs. Harry Joe Yorgey (22-0-1, 10 KO's, 153.25 pounds)
 
 
There has been a lot of shenanigans to make this a title match. The match's promoters had earlier petitioned to have this match be for the WBO's interim 154-pound title. That request was denied, because the WBO already had an interim 154-pound titlist. This interim belt had been held by Paul Williams until sometime Wednesday. Then without notice, Williams was stripped of the title, and this made an interim title match. Williams got the news when the promoter of Angulo and Yorgey sent out a press release announcing this match was for a title he thought he owned. Williams was never notified he even needed to make a defense of his interim belt to keep it. Also to make this an interim title match, the WBO had to ignore their own rankings. Williams was the mandatory contender to the WBO's full champion in this weight class Sergei Dzindziruk. After that, the WBO's number 1 contender in the weight class was Kermit Cintron. Cintron has a win over Angulo and got completely jumped to make the winner of this match the mandatory contender to Dzindziruk. (More on that below.) Angulo is the WBO's number 4 contender in the weight class and Yorgey is their number 5 contender in the weight class. There is no reason at all they should be competing for this belt other than that the WBO is looking to collect more money in sanctioning fees.
 
Angulo had a very good amateur career that peaked when he represented his native Mexico in the 165-pound division at 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
 
Angulo's last match on HBO was the worst match of his career. On May 20, 2009, Angulo lost an unanimous decision to Cintron at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. From early in the match, Angulo did not look "right". Angulo is normally very active and aggressive in the ring. In this match, Angulo's workrate was noticeably slower and he was much less aggressive. Gary Shaw, Angulo's promoter, later said that Angulo had the flu entering the match. However, an eye witness account sent into number1contender.net reported Angulo not looking very sick the night before. In fact, the report placed Angulo out the night before the match laughing and eating ice cream with his friends. That would seem to indicate that Angulo's ineffectiveness was caused by Cintron, not the flu. Cintron probably won the first 4 rounds. In round 6, Cintron set a new CompuBox record for the number of power punches landed on Angulo in an entire match (83). Angulo began to show some desperation in round 7, switching to the southpaw stance in an attempt to find something that would work against Cintron. That proved to be a bad strategy as it allowed Cintron to land numerous hard straight right hands. Angulo was able to change the momentum of the match in round 8, though. He showed superior conditioning to Cintron, and began to take over by applying more pressure against the fatiguing Cintron. Angulo was using some vicious body punches to wear down Cintron, but this good body work was coming too late in the match. In round 10, Cintron was lowering his guard to protect his body. Angulo's body punches were far more dangerous to Cintron then the Mexican's head punches were at that point. Knowing he was well ahead on the scorecards at this point, Cintron was boxing only to avoid a knockout at this point and was willing to give away the last 2 rounds. The prevent defense from Cintron worked. Angulo won the last 2 rounds, but the Puerto Rican won the match. A full recap of that match with the report on Angulo's pre-match activities sent to number1contender.net can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/11/4/recap-of-kermit-cintron-vs-alfredo-angulo.html
 
The Olympian's last match and only since the loss to Cintron was a technical knockout victory at 2:13 of round 2 over Gabriel Rosado on August 7 at Buffalo Bill's Star Arena in Primm, Nevada. The match was put together for Angulo to get a high profile knockout victory on ESPN2, so he could be put back on HBO in his next match. That made it a complete success.
 
Angulo is The Ring magazine's number 9 contender to their vacant championship at 154 pounds.
 
Yorgey is a boxer that liked to stay very active early in his career, but has been very inactive recently. The resident of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania turned pro on December 6, 2002 with a round 4 knockout of Billy Johnson at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In both 2003 and 2006, Yorgey had 7 matches. However in 2008, Yorgey had only 1 match. On August 22, 2008, Yorgey defeated Jason LeHoullier via majority decision at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
The Pennsylvanian's last match and only match in 2009 was an exciting knockout at 2:59 of Ronald Hearns on March 28 at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma. Yorgey scored knockdowns in multiple rounds on the way to giving the son of Thomas Hearns his first professional loss. Of course, part of the reason that match was so exciting, was that the light hitting Hearns knocked Yorgey down, too. Yorgey won a vacant fringe 154-pound title in his upset of Hearns. That belt is not at stake in this match and Yorgey may have vacated it, because it is a completely meaningless trinket. (The International Boxing Association Intercontinental Junior Middleweight Championship was created on January 14, 2009 and is so prestigious it was vacated within weeks by its initial holder, Sechew Powell.)
 
Yorgey is unranked by The Ring, and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 25 boxer in the world at 154 pounds.
 
At 27-years old, Angulo is 4 years younger then the 31-year-old Yorgey. Angulo has the height advantage standing 5' 10.5" tall, while Yorgey stands 5' 10" tall. The Olympian has the reach advantage with a 23.5" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist, compared to Yorgey's 23" arm length. Yorgey will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 166 pounds approaching match time. Angulo has only rehydrated to 164 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.
 
The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this event. Two of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from New York and the other is from Connecticut. The referee is John Callas. Harold Lederman will be keeping HBO's unofficial scorecard for this event. One of the New York judges on this panel is Julie Lederman, Harold's daughter. Despite being Harold's daughter, her scorecards frequently differ from her father's. Therefore, it is not safe to assume her scorecard will match HBO's unofficial scorecard.
 
Angulo lands the harder punches to win round 1, 10-9. Yorgey also landed some hard punches in round 1, but shows some tendencies that could get him in trouble later in this match. First, Yorgey kept putting his back on the ropes. That will allow Angulo to land hard combinations that could make this a short night for the Pennsylvanian. Second, Yorgey is holding his lead left hand a little too low. At the same time, Yorgey's head is off to the right side, instead of tucked like it should be. The combination of the low left hand and Yorgey having his head off to the right makes Yorgey very vulnerable to right hands. A right hand should be able to fly over his left glove and Yorgey's normal head position put his head in the path of all incoming right hands. Harold  Lederman scores round 1 for Angulo, 10-9. With 1:34 to go in round 2, Yorgey takes a huge right hand and momentarily goes limp, but manages to stay standing. This is similar to what happened to Scott Smith in his match of the year candidate with Benji Radach at the Strikeforce event in San Jose, California on April 11, 2009, where he was out on his feet momentarily, but did not go down. Unfortunately for Yorgey, Angulo is a lot better striker than Radach. Yorgey is trapped in the corner and Angulo is unleashing on him with combinations. After taking a series of power punches, Yorgey goes to the canvas with 1:29 still to go in round 2. The referee was very slow moving in to call the knockdown and Angulo landed 2 punches after Yorgey went down. Yorgey is up shockingly quickly after the series of punches he just took. The Pennsylvanian was standing 4 seconds after initially hitting the ground with 1:25 to go in the round. The referee could have rightly stopped the match when Yorgey went limp, but was still standing. However, Yorgey now appears ready to continue when the referee finishes applying the mandatory 8-count. As the count was being applied, Yorgey complained to the referee about a blow to the back of the head. Yorgey may have been hit behind the head, but that is not what did the majority of the damage. Still, the referee warns Angulo about hitting behind the head before allowing the action to resume with still 1:10 to go in round 2. Considering Yorgey has actually already been knocked out once in this round, his chances of making it back to his corner are at best even against the power punching prospect. With still 42 seconds to go in round 2, Yorgey turned his back and ran from Angulo. Then, as the referee was holding back Angulo from hitting Yorgey from behind, Yorgey went and stood in the corner with his arms on the ropes. That either has to be a knockdown or knockout. The ruling either has to be that the ropes were holding Yorgey up, or an acknowledgment that Yorgey has had enough. The referee is not ruling it either way and Yorgey just bought himself some valuable time to recover. Once the round resumed, Yorgey took a tremendous beating and the referee should have really stopped it. Even with only 1 knockdown, Angulo wins round 2 huge, 10-7. Yorgey's corner is going to have to stop the match, now. Their charge is badly over matched and could be very badly hurt by boxing Angulo for even 1 more minute. When Yorgey heads back to his corner following round 2, there is blood streaming from his nose. (It is nowhere near as bad as Fedor Emelianenko's was in his match tonight, though.) In just round 2, Angulo landed 58 of the 108 total punches he threw, for a 54% total connect percentage. That is scary. In the first 2 minutes of round 1, Angulo landed 8 total punches. In the last minute of round 1, Angulo landed 16 total punches. At that point Angulo figured out what to do against Yorgey and began to put a frightening beating on the Pennsylvanian. In round 2, Yorgey landed 11 of the 52 total punches he threw, for a 21% total connect percentage. It is not good that Yorgey threw that many punches in a round that he was hurt that badly. That stat shows Yorgey was not holding, which opened himself up to more damage. Angulo also wins round 2 with only 1 knockdown on the Lederman scorecard, 10-7. Another right hand has Yorgey staggering with 2:38 to go in round 3. Angulo should finish the match within the next 38 seconds. With 2:26 to go in round 3, Yorgey goes down to his knees in an attempt to charge in and tie-up Angulo. The referee rules it a slip, but that could have been called a knockdown. Yorgey was hurt and fell down lunging to clinch. He then dusts off Yorgey and allows the boxer to continue with still 2:17 to go in the round. With 2:00 to go in round 3, Yorgey takes a left hook to the jaw and goes limp on his feet. Unfortunately, Angulo's hands are so fast that the boxer is able to land another right hook to the cheek and grazing left hook to the top of the head as part of the combination before Yorgey collapses to the mat. This time Yorgey is not popping back to his feet. The referee was moving in the second he saw Yorgey go limp, but it was too late to stop Angulo from finishing his combination. Unlike the 2 blows Angulo landed when Yorgey was down in round 2, these were not late punches. Angulo had already committed to throwing the hooks as part of his combination, it just so happened it found an already unconscious Yorgey. This is scary. The referee should have stopped the match in the waning seconds of round 2, when Angulo was landing a series of hard combinations. Yorgey's corner should have stopped the match after round 2 or in the first few seconds of round 3. Yorgey has his eyes open and is moving around on the ground, which is a good sign. After about a minute, Yorgey is up and walking around. He is clearly off to spend at least one night in a hospital and will not be in a boxing ring for many months.
 
The official outcome courtesy of Marc Lichtenfeld is that at: 1:03 of round 3 the winner by technical knockout and new Interim WBO Junior Middleweight Champion of the World, Alfredo "Perro" Angulo. The win moves Angulo to 17-1 with now 14 wins coming by way of knockout.
 
The final punchstat numbers have Angulo landing 113 of the 233 total punches he threw, for a 48% total connect percentage. Angulo landed 99 of the 157 power punches he threw, for a ridiculous 63% power connect percentage. Yorgey landed only 31 of the 125 total punches he threw, for a 25% total connect percentage. The Pennsylvanian landed 25 of the 82 power punches he threw, for a 30% power connect percentage. Angulo landed 17 more power punches then Yorgey threw.
 
Angulo in his post-match interview said nothing of note. He was not even asked about a potential next opponent. The most notable thing about this interview was Angulo kept fiddling with a baseball cap his people were trying to put on his head. HBO really only interviewed him, because the match went way too short and they have to stall for time. Even after all of that, this broadcast that is scheduled to go 2:15 with that match going about an hour has only gone 23 minutes.
 
The new champion was as good as could be asked for in this match. He scored an early knockout of a severely over matched opponent and did not display any weaknesses. Angulo showed excellent composure in the ring and did what he was supposed to do. Unfortunately, it is hard to judge much off of this performance from Angulo. Yorgey is a step below other boxers Angulo has knocked out in the past. Therefore, this match does not really answer any of the questions raised in the loss to Cintron. Angulo's next match should be against Dzindziruk, which will probably be on the undercard of another HBO World Championship Boxing card in early 2010. Of course, Dzindziruk is currently having issues with his promoter, Universum, and that could push the title unification match back a while.
 
This was a terrible match-up for Yorgey on paper and even worse in the ring. The result was him possibly being very badly injured. Yorgey never should have been in this match. He is going to need to take a long time away from training to recover from a very severe concussion. After that, Yorgey is going to have to fundamentally retool what he does defensively and begin rebuilding against a much lower level of competition. That probably needs to happen off of television.
 
 
 
2. Interim WBC/IBO Light Heavyweight (175 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:
Chad Dawson (28-0, 1 NC, 17 KO's, 175 pounds) (IBO) vs. Glen Johnson (49-12-2, 33 KO's, 173.5 pounds) II
 
 
Dawson won his IBO Championship via unanimous decision from Antonio Tarver on October 11, 2008 at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Showtime had spent over 1 year building this match as a match-up of the young lion against the old guard at 175 pounds. The match proved to be a blowout. Dawson used his superior speed to dominate the match, even scoring a knockdown in round 12 on his way to winning the match easily on all of the official judges' scorecards. The full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/5/7/recap-of-chad-dawson-vs-antonio-tarver-i.html Dawson is making his second defense of this belt.
 
This interim WBC belt is being created in this match. The reasoning is that Dawson was the WBC Champion at 175 pounds, but had to bypass a mandatory defense and vacate the belt to take his first match with Tarver. Therefore, the WBC is making this for their interim 175-pound belt, as a form of apology and to collect more sanctioning fees. The actual WBC 175-pound titlist is Jean Pascal, who is scheduled to defend his belt against Adrian Diaconu on December 11 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.
 
Dawson-Johnson I ended with Dawson taking a controversial unanimous decision on April 12, 2008 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. The match was on the undercard of a Showtime event main evented by Antonio Tarver vs. Clinton Woods. Showtime had intended this as the final event to build up the Dawson-Tarver match. Dawson was to further establish himself as the future of the 175-pound division by defeating a longtime elite at 175 pounds. The only boxer that has a longer active streak of being ranked by The Ring at 175 pounds is Tarver. Dawson was supposed to easily defeat Johnson and have fans salivating to see Dawson-Tarver. Instead, Dawson had an exciting close match with Johnson. That had fans wanting to see those two in a rematch, rather then Dawson-Tarver. Dawson-Tarver I ended up doing a paid crowd of less then 1,000. However, HBO paid a lot of money to bring Dawson to their network. After taking the mandated rematch with Tarver, they required Dawson to take the rematch with Johnson in the second match of his 2 match contract.
 
The first Dawson-Johnson match was a see-saw affair from the start. Dawson won round 1 with his superior hand speed and movement on the outside. Johnson landed several powerful right hands to take round 2. The native of Jamaica was able to land hard punches on the inside to take round 3. Johnson was so proud of his performance after that round that he posed and the crowd gave him a rousing ovation. In round 4, it was clear that this was already the most difficult match of Dawson's now 27 match professional career that included a victory over The Ring's 200-pound Champion, Tomasz Adamek. in round 4, Johnson was walking the young boxer down and forcing Dawson to punch going backwards. That was taking all of the force off of Dawson's punches, making him unable to deter Johnson's relentless pressure. Dawson made some quick subtle adjustments to begin to come back in round 5, though. Dawson, a southpaw, switched directions and was now circling to his right and throwing more right hooks. Boxers who employ the orthodox stance, like Johnson, are taught to circle to their left against southpaws. At this point if Johnson circled to his left, he walked into Dawson's right hooks. If Johnson adjusted and circled to his right, he would allow Dawson to land hard straight left hands. That is typically the best punch for a southpaw to use against a boxer using the orthodox stance. The reason orthodox boxers are told to circle to their left against a southpaw is to avoid the southpaw's straight left hand. Johnson was slow to adapt to Dawson's adjustment and continued to try to go straight at the young boxer only to be unable to hit the faster Dawson. This allowed Dawson to control the middle rounds, likely winning all of them on the official judges' scorecards. Dawson then showed his inexperience as he abandoned his movement in the later rounds. The young boxer was doing so well, he felt that he did not need to keep moving anymore and could land effectively on the outside without consequences. Then with 52 seconds to go in round 10, Dawson got hit with a big right hand that had him badly hurt. The crowd rose to their feet as Dawson was forced to hang on desperately for the rest of the round to avoid being knocked down. Johnson continued where he left off, pouring on the offense in winning a great 11. The native Jamaican knowing he needed to finish strong, probably hurt Dawson again in round 12, but it was not enough. In Dawson's post-match interview he was honest. He called it the toughest match of his career. The young boxer admitted that he was hurt several times during the match. Dawson also made it clear, he had no interest of doing a rematch with Johnson. Unfortunately for him, HBO had other ideas. A full recap of this great match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/11/7/recap-of-chad-dawson-vs-glen-johnson-i.html
 
Dawson had a strong amateur boxing career that culminated when he won a silver medal representing the United States at the 2001 World Amateur Championships.
 
Dawson's last match was an immediate rematch of his unanimous decision victory over Tarver. On May 9, 2009, Dawson won a closer unanimous decision over Tarver at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The match was pretty much a mirror image of the first match, except this time Dawson did not score the knockdown. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/11/5/recap-of-chad-dawson-vs-antonio-tarver-ii.html
 
Dawson is The Ring's number 2 contender to their vacant championship at 175 pounds.
 
Johnson had a modest amateur boxing career that began in Miami, Florida where he moved from Clarendon, Jamaica as a youth. In Florida, Johnson had 40 amateur matches and won 2 Florida State Golden Gloves Championships.
 
Johnson's last match was a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Daniel Judah, the brother of Zab Judah, on February 27, 2009 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Johnson has been inactive for the last several months just waiting for this match to get signed and then finally happen.
 
Johnson is The Ring's number 3 contender at 175 pounds.
 
At 27-years old, Dawson is 13 years younger than the 40-year-old Johnson. Dawson has the height advantage standing 6' 2" tall, while Johnson stands 5' 11" tall. The New Haven, Connecticut resident has the reach advantage with a 25" arm length, compared to Johnson's 24" arm length. Dawson will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 191 pounds approaching match time. The Miami resident has only rehydrated to 189 pounds approaching match time, unofficially. Johnson will box out of the orthodox stance and Dawson will box out of the southpaw stance.
 
The judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Connecticut, Nevada and Florida. The referee is Michael Ortega. Ortega is the top official in Connecticut and very good.
 
Dawson lands the cleaner punches to easily win round 1, 10-9. The Connecticut resident wins round 1 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. Dawson landed several good straight left hand counters and a flurry near the bell to win round 2, 10-9. Lederman scores round 2 for Dawson, 10-9. Dawson uses his superior hand speed to win round 3, 10-9, and after 3 rounds 3 leads on my scorecard, 30-27. The boxers exchanged punches near the end of round 3 and that got the crowd excited. Unfortunately, none of those punches landed cleanly. In the rematch of an exciting first match, Dawson and Johnson have had a very boring match through the first 3 rounds. Dawson wins round 3 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9, and leads on the Lederman scorecard, 30-27.
 
Dawson has Johnson looking old and confused as the young boxer wins round 4, 10-9. Johnson is trying his usual strategy of applying constant pressure and once again cannot land punches on Dawson. In the first match, Dawson used his superior movement to counter Johnson's aggressiveness. In this match, Dawson has Johnson's rushes timed and is continually punishing the veteran with hard right jabs whenever the Floridian tries to come inside. Johnson is not trying to land a damaging left hand and has become a right hand only boxer. Unfortunately, Dawson has Johnson's right hand timed, too. Dawson is usually able to counter Johnson's right hand on the outside with a hard straight left hand. The powerful right hand of Johnson is what gave Dawson so much trouble in the first match. After round 4, Johnson was arguing with his corner. They were telling the boxer that he had lost the first 4 rounds on the judges' scorecards and needed to start taking chances. Johnson refused to believe that he had lost every round and hence the argument. Lederman scores round 4 for Dawson, 10-9. Johnson did respond to his corner and applied a lot more pressure to Dawson in round 5, which made it one of the closest of the match. Still, Dawson lands the most clean punches to take round 5, 10-9. Through 5 rounds, Dawson has landed 111 of the 324 total punches he threw, for a 34% total connect percentage. To get an idea of what a slow pace this match is being contested at compared to the first match, Angulo landed 113 total punches against Yorgey, 2 more then Dawson in 7:57 less. Through 5 rounds, Johnson has landed 71 of the 276 total punches he has thrown, for a 26% total connect percentage. Angulo landed 28 more power punches in his short match then Johnson has landed total punches in the opening 15 minutes of this match. Lederman scores round 5 for Dawson, 10-9. In round 6, Johnson continues to be more aggressive creating the best action round of the match, so far. Unfortunately for Johnson, Dawson is still able to win round 6 with his superior hand speed, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-54. Johnson said going into this match that he expected to need a knockout to win in essentially Dawson's hometown, and at this point it appears Johnson has already lost so many rounds he will need a knockout to win. (Dawson actually lives in New Haven, not Hartford, but it is such a short drive that this is essentially a hometown match for Dawson. Of course, a match in any city in Connecticut would be a hometown match for Dawson. It is a very small state that only takes about 2 hours to drive across.) After round 6, Johnson's corner told their charge he had lost every round, so far, and needed a knockout. Lederman was actually a little more positive scoring round 6 for Johnson, 10-9, but Lederman has Dawson ahead on his scorecard after 6 rounds, 59-55. The HBO analyst admits the scoring of round 6 for Johnson may have been a bit generous, because Johnson did relatively better.
 
Round 7 was so interesting that the HBO commentators discussed Dawson's haircut and the possibility of him moving up to heavyweight. They also found time in round 7 to incorrectly identify what weight class 168-pound title holder Lucian Bute is in. Bute and Johnson have been sparring for the last several weeks, not only to prepare Johnson for Dawson, but Bute for a rematch with Librado Andrade that HBO is televising on November 28. Before the match, Emanuel Steward, who is one of HBO's color commentators for this broadcast, identified Bute as a 200-pounder. In round 7, Jim Lampley, the play-by-play broadcaster for this telecast, had Bute competing at 175 pounds. The HBO crew has been having a rough night as they have badly missed on a few other facts. (They are still probably having a better night then the Strikeforce commentators did on Friday and Saturday.) Bute is a slick boxing southpaw that was supposed to have Johnson well prepared for this match. That appears to have not worked. However since Dawson did almost nothing and Johnson did relatively better, the Floridian takes round 7, 10-9. Lederman scores round 7 for Dawson, 10-9. Honestly, this match is so boring none of the HBO commentators can stay focused. It appears Johnson beat the entertaining out of Dawson in that first match. Dawson continues his domination taking round 8, 10-9. The fact Dawson is able to dominate like this is shocking. The problem is it is also really boring. Through the first 8 rounds of the first match, Dawson had thrown 694 total punches. Through 8 rounds in this match, Dawson has only thrown 516 total punches. That means Dawson has thrown 178 fewer punches at this point in the match then he did in the first match, which averages out to 23.5 fewer total punches per round. Through the first 8 rounds of the Dawson-Johnson I, Johnson had thrown 533 total punches. Through the first 8 rounds of this match, Johnson has thrown only 461 total punches. That is 72 fewer punches then he threw at the same point in the first match, and on average 9 fewer punches thrown per round. That means on average the boxers are combining to throw 33 fewer punches per round then they did in the first match. That is how a great match, becomes painfully boring. Dawson wins round 8 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. Dawson lands several good combinations to win round 9, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 89-82. Lederman scores round 9 for Dawson, 10-9, and has Dawson ahead on his scorecard after 9 rounds, 89-82.
 
Lampley was having a discussion with HBO's other color commentator for this broadcast, Max Kellerman, about Angulo for the first 2 minutes of round 10 and apparently forgot to watch the match. The tip off to viewers was when Lampley asked Steward what was happening in this round, after he finished his discussion of Angulo. When the play-by-play broadcaster has openly stopped watching, it is a boring match. Dawson wins round 10 by continuing to show more speed then Johnson, 10-9. Lederman scores round 10 for Dawson, 10-9. Dawson wins an uninteresting round 11 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Through the first 11 rounds of Dawson-Johnson I, Dawson had landed 184 power punches and Johnson had landed 182 power punches. Through the first 11 rounds of this match, Dawson has landed 136 power punches and Johnson has only landed 82 power punches. Dawson has landed 46 fewer power punches then he did at this point in the first match, which only works out to a little over 4 power connect less per round. Johnson has landed exactly 100 fewer power punches then he did at this point in the first match, which works out to a little over 9 power connects less per round. That means combined they are landing over 13 fewer power punches per round on average and turned a great first match into something HBO is probably sorry they paid a lot of money to carry. Dawson boxes most of round 12 very defensively. That allows Johnson to win round 12, 10-9, but Dawson wins the match on my scorecard, 118-110. Lederman also scores round 12 for Johnson, 10-9, and has Dawson winning the match, 118-110.
 
It is taking an unusually longtime for the scorecards to be added up, which as a rule means something bad is about to happen. The official decision courtesy of Marc Lichtenfeld is that the judges have scored this match: 117-111, 115-113, 115-113 all for the winner by unanimous decision still undefeated and now the unified Interim WBC and IBO Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, "Bad" Chad Dawson. That was nearly something bad. The win moves Dawson to 29-0 with 1 no contest and 17 wins coming by way of knockout.
 
The final punchstat numbers have Dawson dominating this match landing 248 of the 756 total punches he threw, for a 33% total connect percentage. Dawson landed 142 of the 252 power punches he threw, for an outstanding 56% power connect percentage. Johnson landed 167 of the 688 total punches he threw, for a 24% total connect percentage. The Florida resident only landed 90 of the 259 power punches he threw, for a 35% power connect percentage. In 36 minutes, Johnson was not able to land as many power punches as Angulo did in 7:03, yet somehow 2 judges gave Johnson 5 rounds.
 
Dawson said in his post-match interview that he wants Bernard Hopkins, which is not happening. Without that happening, Dawson said he would be glad to face the winner of Pascal-Diaconu in his next match.
 
It seems impossible that anyone could have seen this as a close match. The only way it seems possible that the judges could have come up with that score is if they fell asleep watching this match and dreamed they were watching Dawson-Johnson I. Then, they could have woken up and written down how they would have scored that match to come up with their scorecards for this match. The odd thing is that, Dawson won that controversial first match much more comfortably on the scorecards. All of the judges in that match had Dawson winning the first match by the same score of 116-112. Dawson was very good in this match. The problem is Dawson was so good he was boring. The reason HBO was clamoring to get Dawson was that prior to the series of matches with Tarver, Dawson had the great first match with Johnson, 2 impressive knockout victories and an impressive win over Adamek. Dawson has now won gone to 3 straight decisions in matches that were so boring they could cure insomnia. Both Diaconu and Pascal are based out of Montreal, and far better draws then Dawson. If Dawson's next match is against the winner of Diaconu vs. Pascal, it will be in Montreal, probably around April. Based on recent history, Dawson is going to need a knockout to win that match. Of course if Marlon B. Wright is assigned to referee the contest, Dawson should just take the loss and not waste his time traveling to Montreal. Having Wright work a boxing match, tells people the match is rigged from the outset.
 
Johnson is probably still a top boxer at 175 pounds, but was not good enough to defeat a boxer that may warrant consideration for being on some pound-for-pound best lists. Johnson was too slow to match-up with the younger faster Dawson. However, Johnson is still possibly better then all of the full titleholders in this division. In fact, many of them probably could use Johnson to help get on a major network. Tavoris Cloud has the IBF title that Dawson was forced to vacate, because HBO would not televise the mandatory title defense. HBO offered to televise Cloud's match challenging for the IBF belt, if he did not enforce his mandatory status and allowed them to run Dawson-Johnson II first. HBO would probably be willing to put Cloud vs. Johnson on an HBO Boxing After Dark telecast. That match would not cost a lot to make. If Cloud wins, they could get him into a title unification match with Dawson down the line. If Johnson wins, HBO can continue to throw young challengers at him, until finally someone defeats him and can become a new star to market around.
 
 
 
Angulo put a scary beating on Yorgey in the first match. That was not good viewing. The main event was one of the most disappointing matches in a while. It looked great on paper and was awful in the ring. The last 2 matches that so under-delivered were Kelly Pavlik vs. Bernard Hopkins and Paulie Malignaggi vs. Ricky Hatton. Except, both of those matches were entertaining in their own way as a veteran star appeared to re-establish his dominance. This was simply boring and there was no underlying story or drama to keep the audience interested. This is an event to avoid watching.
 
 
 
News and Notes: Paul Williams has a new opponent for his December 5 match on HBO. Williams will be taking on 154-pound titleholder Sergio Martinez in a 160-pound match at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That is an upstairs ballroom at Boardwalk Hall, similar to how the Manhattan Center is an upstairs ballroom in the same building that houses the Hammerstein Ballroom.
 
The Williams-Martinez telecast is going to be opened by Chris Arreola returning to action against an opponent that is still yet to be determined. The WBC held their annual meetings last week and suspended Arreola for 6 months for foul language in his post-match interview following his loss challenging for Vitali Klitschko's WBC Heavyweight Championship. The thing is that is not a real suspension. The WBC just suspended him from their rankings and said he cannot go after any of their trinkets for 6 months. That suspension ends at the end of March. Considering Arreola will not be boxing in a WBC sanctioned match on December 5 and is unlikely to be in action again until the end of March, the suspension is completely meaningless. It is an intentionally pointless move that will cost them no potential money in sanctioning fees, and makes them look good to the people who think there is too much swearing in combat sports? The WBC then announced they had made a deal to put a likeness of Mike Tyson's fist and forearm on all the trophies they give out at their awards banquet. That is the same boxer they named the mandatory contender to Lennox Lewis immediately after he cut a post-match promo saying he wanted to eat Lewis' children. The WBC also said they are going to start cracking down on the rule they have in place that fathers cannot work their son's corners. Of course, that rule will not pass a legal challenge in the United States and be waived immediately if Floyd Mayweather, Sr. needs to corner Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in a match for a WBC belt.
 
The WBC made a series of interesting ruling regarding number 1 contenders at their meetings last week. The most interesting concerns their 168-pound champion, Carl Froch. Froch just beat Andre Dirrell in the opening round of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. The Englishman won that match in a controversial split decision. Dirrell petitioned the WBC for a rematch. According to the rules of the Super Six, competitors cannot make mandatory title defenses during the tournament. The WBC had already agreed that they will not order any mandatory defenses of their belt while it is in play in the tournament. Therefore, they decided that Dirrell is now the mandatory number 1 contender to the belt. If the belt holder manages to work a defense in around their tournament matches it has to go to Dirrell, but they are not requiring it. Of course, no one who holds that belt is going to be taking an extra match during this tournament. If Dirrell gets another shot at the WBC title during the tournament, that counts as his mandatory title shot. If Dirrell does not get another shot at the WBC title in this tournament, the first match for the titlist after the tournament must be against Dirrell or they will be stripped of the belt. That means Dirrell is probably not getting his title shot until sometime in the Fall of 2011 at the earliest.
 
With the cancellation of Pavlik-Williams, HBO has an unexpected influx of cash into their boxing budget and has gone on a spending spree to fill out the remainder of 2009. In addition to the revamped December 5 card, HBO has announced a massive card for December 12. It is going to open with same-day tape delay coverage of Vitali Klitschko's heavyweight title defense against Kevin Johnson in Switzerland. Then HBO will go live to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois for a massive doubleheader. That part of the telecast will open with Victor Ortiz vs. Antonio Diaz. Then in the main event it will be Juan Diaz vs. Paulie Malignaggi II coming off the highly controversial first match that Diaz won in his hometown of Houston, Texas on August 22 of this year. This time, it will be at a neutral location, in a larger ring, and the weight limit is being raised to 139 pounds. All of which should be more in favor of Malignaggi this time.
 
HBO is also set to announce they are going to begin 2010 with a good title unification match. On January 30, Andre Berto and Shane Mosley will meet at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to unify their 147-pound titles.
 
David Haye did defeat Nikolai Valuev to capture a heavyweight title on Saturday. After months of bluster about how the Englishman was going to be the first to knockout the giant champion, who was given a gift decision over Evander Holyfield, Haye eked out the title with a 12-round majority decision. That is not really sending much of a statement to the heavyweight division. Haye's next match is a mandatory title defense against John Ruiz. Like this match, that match probably will not be televised in the United States on anything other then a small scale PPV.
 
Finally, Manny Pacquiao will face Miguel Cotto in the next boxing mega-event on HBO PPV next week and the HBO 24/7 series to promote the event so far has done a really poor job. In the first 3 episodes neither boxer has mentioned their opponent's name more then a handful of times. The mini-series is focusing on each boxer preparing for the match, without really building to the match. Cotto has spent more time discussing Antonio Margarito, who knocked him out with the aid of loaded hand wraps then Pacquiao. On the Pacquiao side, the show has built much better to seeing the people in Pacquiao's camp beat up some guy who is leeching off Pacquiao. The camps appear to just be geared toward facing a normal opponent, not that special opponent that fans should pay lots of money to watch. In fact, if Pacquiao and Cotto were not on the episodes together, it would be possible to forget that they are actually facing each other on November 14. The match should be great, but it is impossible to tell watching this 24/7 series.
 
 
 
The next recap will be of the November 14 HBO PPV featuring Pacquiao vs. Cotto.

 
 

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