by Dafs117
The interest of the light heavyweight division has drastically dropped over the course of the year, with the top dogs competing in poor match-ups, sadly not against each other as the top two didn’t come close to the negotiation table. The division can pretty much be separated into two categories, uninteresting older ‘celebrity’ fighters and interesting younger hungrier fighters. In other words, this is a division that has been in a semi-lull recently, but might soon snap out of it.
As we always start at the positive end of the spectrum here at the BTBC, we’ll start with the young guns that have resuscitated the weight class. There’s the undefeated Chad Dawson, who has talent and puts sweet into sweet science. Sudden lapses of concentration make him vulnerable to the wiser operators in the division, so it might be wise that there’s been no mention of the top two facing off. Dawson failed to capitalize on his breakthrough year of 2008, with similar victories against the contenders put in front of him.
Jean Pascal made the jump up north from super middleweight and quickly made himself a force, winning a title in the process. The green belt has given Pascal another massive opportunity, thus being against Dawson, to really plant himself on the main stage of boxing. He’s a talented fighter, but his execution of simpler tactics is his downfall. His strengths are his boxing abilities, not his slugging nature. He could have easily outpointed Carl Froch last year, but decided to mix it up. The performance however, was promising.
Adrian Diaconu is hardly young, but as he’s a new face, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He lost twice to Pascal, but kept it close to most importantly keep himself in the frame for another title shot later on in the year, not against Pascal though. Another fighter that is easily caught in transformation from defence to attack, we may have seen the best of Diaconu at 175 pounds. Still, he’s another fresh name at the bottom end of the table.
Patience is a virtue. Especially for Tavoris Cloud, who waited a year and a half to get his much deserved titleshot, capturing the IBF trinket with a unanimous verdict over Clinton Woods, who has since retired from the sport. Big things are expected from Cloud in 2010, but can the undefeated American deliver?
Yusaf Mack suddenly found himself in the high ranks of the division following his split verdict over Chris Henry. He could be another American with a big year ahead of him, with plenty of names seeing Mack as a beatable fighter. He has one punch power that his record covers up, but another relatively new name up there at 175 pounds.
