411Boxing Report Dawson-Johnson Media Workout
Posted by Joe Roche on 11.04.2009
Joe Roche is in Bloomfield, CT to see Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson work out.
Photo credit: Joe Roche/411mania.com
Media workouts are difficult to describe. For the most part it's you (or in this case, me) with two or three other writers, the fighter (or fighters), their trainers, managers and some random hangers on. The workout is never intense, and sometimes it's not even a workout -- and by the time that these workouts are held it's so late in the game that any question that we as writers could possibly have are already answered.
That being said I also love media workouts. A week before Lou Del Valle and Joey Spina fought I saw Spina workout and immediately recognized that he wasn't as confident as I thought he needed to be -- sure enough he struggled in the fight and eeked out a majority draw. Three days ago if you had asked me if Glen Johnson could beat Chad Dawson this Saturday night I would've said no -- after seeing both work out I'm not so confident.
Press releases, emails, twitter updates, and phone calls can tell you almost everything about a fighter -- but looking in their eye is always the most revealing. To be sure nothing that happened today at the open media workout for Johnson or Chad Dawson was revolutionary, as a matter of fact the best part was probably the twenty minutes or so that I spent talking to former welterweight champion Marlon "Magic Man" Starling. But when I asked each fighter how they envisioned the fight going this is how they each responded:
Johnson: "I'm hoping I'll get a KO because that's definitely the best way to win especially in this situation. At the same time we want to go out and win every round by a large margin just in case the KO doesn't come we're protected, we're successful just widening the margin so the rip off artists can't take it."
Dawson: "Glen Johnson has only been stopped once and that was by Bernard Hopkins a long time ago. After that nobody has been able to drop him so I see the fight playing out – Chad Dawson 12 round unanimous decision, blow out. I just gotta take it one round at a time."
On paper it looks like both fighters said the same thing -- but I stood right in front of them, and Johnson made his knockout prediction with conviction, Dawson...not so much. When asked how he intended on approaching the rematch Dawson said "I'll approach it [the second fight] pretty much the same way. I was in great shape in the first fight; I knew it'd be a tough fight. I trained the same way this time. The only thing is with this fight that I'm two years older and he's two years old but that's to my advantage because I'm two years more mature. He's two years older but he's 40 so he's slowed down a little."
Age is an interesting factor heading into this fight. Chad Dawson is entering what should be his prime years as a fighter, while Glen Johnson enterted his heyday ten years ago and is now somewhere between the twilight of his career and the point where we all have to start thinking that he might be a cyborg. When asked about his age Johnson smiled and simply said "I believe even at 40 I still have what it takes to be successful. The people who don't believe that I have what it takes to take on a 27 year old – to them I say I am representing everyone over 30 when I step inside the ring, and the blue collar man which is 90% of the population. I'm representing a large body of people – I believe I have what it takes, and we'll wait and see on the 7th and we'll see who backs up the talk and who just talks the talk."
So was anything that I saw or heard today enough for me to think that Glen Johnson will beat Chad Dawson on Saturday night? Not really. But like I said -- I'm suddenly a bit more weary of "The Road Warrior" because the man that I saw today working the mitts, and hitting the bags didn't strike me as a 40 year old man. One other thing that I should mention is that when Johnson was working in the ring with his trainer they were doing an exercise where Johnson would unload on the mitts and then after a few exchanges his trainer would run around the outside of the ring and Johnson would have to cut him off. This stuck me as brilliant because my biggest complaint with Johnson in the last Dawson fight was that he chased "Bad" Chad all over the ring and never tried to cut the ring off. If Johnson cuts the ring in half against Dawson he will neutralize the younger fighters best trait, and make Saturday night a very long night for Dawson.
The other reason that I enjoy going to media workouts is because there is always at least one thing that you don't expect that you get to experience. Today I got to spend a good deal of time with Marlon Starling, a fighter who was probably one of the Top 10 fighters in the world in the mid/late 1980's. Starling was fantastic to talk to, really a nice guy, and funny as hell. We talked about Floyd Mayweather (Starling was a welterweight champion who beat Floyd Sr. twice) and how he always thought Floyd Jr. "sucked" until he saw him completely dismantle Marquez who is "no bum."
At one point I looked up and realized the the only people in the gym were Glen Johnson, Chad Dawson, Marlon Starling, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, me, and about twelve other people so that essentially 1/5 of all the people in the room were current or former world champions, now you have to admit that's pretty cool right?
I really can't think of a great way to end this recap so I thought I'd let "The Road Warrior" play me out with one of the funniest quotes I've ever heard from a boxer who was saying it without trying to be funny at all. "When the night is over with, real boxing fans are going to be supporting me. I mean Chad's family and friends will always support Chad which is not bad, I have nothing against that, but I believe that I'm the guy who will excite the crowd, give the crowd a treat and let them feel like their money is well spent."
