Dawson targets talking points

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Sr. left Chad Dawson’s training camp a year ago in disgust, unable to get along with the then-WBC light heavyweight champion.

But while Mayweather, the colorful and outspoken trainer, may not have been happy with many things that Dawson was doing and other things he said Dawson wouldn’t do, he had no doubt about Dawson’s physical gifts.

“If he wants it badly enough, he got the tools to do it, ain’t no doubt,” Mayweather said. “And that’s against anybody in that division. The question is, does he want it?”

Dawson is unbeaten and largely unchallenged in his young career, though he got a legitimate scare in his last outing, April 12 in Tampa, Fla., when he squeaked past veteran Glen Johnson.

He surrendered the WBC belt for a chance to fight Antonio Tarver on Saturday at The Palms Hotel for Tarver’s IBF championship. The fight will be televised nationally by Showtime.

Dawson is better than a 2-to-1 favorite to defeat Tarver, who has tried to turn the fight into a war of words. That’s a battle Dawson, 26, can’t win against Tarver, though he gave it a valiant shot.

“This fight has gotten personal,” Dawson said. “I don’t like that dude. I won’t like him after the fight and I won’t like him two years from now. He irritates everyone. All people keep telling me is to shut his mouth up. That’s what I intend to do.”

It’s gotten personal for two reasons: Tarver has, as he usually does, jabbered incessantly about his talent and what he’ll do in the fight. But more significantly, he was difficult to pin down to sign to fight Dawson.

Tarver’s reason was that Dawson was a virtual unknown and the fight wouldn’t be big enough. Yet, he’s fighting him on Saturday in a tiny venue and promoters are privately appalled at the light media turnout.

Dawson’s camp believes the reason Tarver was so reluctant to sign was because he knew he couldn’t win. After getting routed by Bernard Hopkins on June 10, 2006, Tarver fought lesser lights Elvir Muriqi and Danny Santiago.

Then, in April, they shared a card in Tampa. Dawson did his part by outgunning the dogged Johnson, who had split a pair of fights with Tarver. Tarver then scored a decision over Clinton Woods to win the IBF belt that set up Saturday’s bout.

Dawson said he’s going into Saturday’s fight with a chip on his shoulder and a point to prove. He isn’t simply out to win; he aims to punish Tarver.

“Tarver said he hasn’t been ducking me, but that is flat out b.s.,” Dawson said. “He’s afraid of the beating I’m going to give him. He’s been afraid all along. I’m going to shut his big mouth up.”

Dawson’s trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, said he suspects Tarver knows Dawson is correct. Muhammad is an ex-light heavyweight champion himself and said he sees signs of fear in Tarver.

Muhammad said he feels Tarver sees the same improvements in Dawson that he saw when he watched a tape of Dawson’s Feb. 3, 2007, WBC-title winning effort over Tomasz Adamek.

“The fight just happened to be on and I caught it and that was fortunate for me,” Muhammad said. “If I didn’t know Chad, and I wasn’t working with him then, I would have said this is a gifted fighter who has some flaws. He had some work to do in his game.

“I ran into him and I told him I’d seen the Adamek fight. Before I could say anything else, he put up his hand to tell me to stop and he goes, ‘Let me guess: I’m a lot, lot better, right?’ And I just shook my head yes. Because it is amazing, the difference in him in just that short period of time. He’s really fixing up all his flaws. He’s on the verge of busting out now. He has everything it takes in this game to be the best of all of them. And I saw of all of them, not just at 175, which has some good fighters, but I mean in every class. Pound-for-pound. Chad has that kind of ability and those kinds of skills.”

Dawson’s manager, Mike Criscio, pulled $50,000 in cash out of a black bag and offered to bet Tarver straight up (though Tarver would have been stupid to take the bet since he could have gotten much better odds on himself at the Palms sports book just a few steps away from where Criscio pulled his stunt).

Tarver never responded, though later he said he wasn’t going to allow Criscio to gain notoriety off his name.

But Dawson saw it in much simpler terms.

“If he thought he was going to win the fight, if he were so sure, why wouldn’t he take the bet?” Dawson asked. “I’ll tell you why: He knows he won’t win. He knows he can’t win. This is it for Tarver. I’m going to be happy to stick my fist in his mouth just so I don’t have to hear him talking no more.”