Saturday night's HBO fight card, headlined by the WBC light heavyweight title bout between "Bad" Chad Dawson and Adonis "Superman" Stevenson, offered an exciting night of boxing and gave us plenty to take from the action.
From Dawson's fall back to Earth after a second straight loss, to Stevenson's emergence as a star, to future bouts in the making, there was no shortage of interesting developments to come out of Saturday's fight card in Montreal.
Let's take a look at the biggest takeaways and what to learn from Saturday's fight card.
A New Light Heavyweight Champ
With a 21-1 record and eight straight wins, Adonis Stevenson has finally reached the pinnacle of being the WBC light heavyweight champion after a thrilling KO victory over Dawson.
The 30-year-old Dawson was keen to hold on to his title after losing the WBC super middleweight belt to Andre Ward late last year, but it was to no avail. He simply came out unprepared to deal with Superman's speed, and it haunted him just as the fight was getting going.
It's tough to judge the flow of a fight that lasted just 76 seconds, but Stevenson seemed to be well-prepared and more focused on executing. Obviously, it didn't take long for him to make his attack.
At the age of 35, Superman's belt-winning victory surely is a sweet feeling and undoubtedly the biggest moment of his career.
Dawson's Career Stock Is Tanking
It wouldn't be remiss to give Bad Chad a pass for his defeat by Ward in late 2012 due to fighting at 168 pounds, a less familiar weight for the boxer. But after what we saw from him on Saturday in Montreal, no more passes are to be given.
We've never seen Dawson appear in a fight where he didn't have the quickest arsenal of moves, but that was the case against the undersized Ward. Still, the size was said to have made a big difference, and we could expect much different against Stevenson.
In fact, Dawson went as far as to say the fight was a "tune-up" according to Dan Rafael of ESPN, whose story is quoted below.
Dawson called the fight a "tune-up" at the news conference to kick off the promotion in April. He said that he had to Google Stevenson because he had never heard of him. And four days before the bout he said of Stevenson, "If the only thing you can say is he's a good puncher, I feel sorry for him."
Certainly, Bad Chad has a better feel for Superman's power and won't be so quick to write off another opponent due to his unfamiliarity with whoever it is. But he could've benefitted from more effort in scouting Stevenson and figuring out just how dangerous he can be.
Dawson's refusal to give his opponent the proper respect has resulted in his career legacy taking a massive blow.
Bernard Hopkins Could Get Another Shot
Immediately after the fight, Stevenson wasted no time in proclaiming his first ideas for his next opponent, according to Rafael's ESPN story noted above.
He called out the name of one of the sport's all-time greats and notable boxers, Bernard Hopkins, as a likely candidate for his first title defense.
Stevenson said he wanted to unify alphabet titles and mentioned 48-year-old future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins, who has his own business to attend to against mandatory challenger Karo Murat on July 13, as an opponent he would like to face.
This would be a huge fight for Hopkins' camp, as the aged boxer is certainly taking a close look at retirement and wants to add to his already massive legacy before taking off the gloves for good. Plus, Hopkins has redemption on his mind after losing Stevenson's current post to Dawson in April of last year.
Of course, Hopkins has a more pressing fight to worry about before that. He's set to face Karo Murat on July 13 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. If he has any aspiration of contending for his long-lost belt, Hopkins will first have to take care of business in the Nets' stomping grounds.
But the prospect of fighting again for the WBC light heavyweight belt surely is music to Hopkins' ears and will only make him more motivated to take down Murat.
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