Dawson beats up Diaconu to earn shot at BHop or Pascal

Chad Dawson's changed a lot in his life, but he never lost the basic boxing skills that put him on the boxing pound-for-pound list for much of 2008, 2009 and 2010. The young light heavyweight, a bit forgotten by some boxing fans, cruised to a win over Adrian Diaconu via unanimous decision 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112, tonight at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

The victory for Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) should get him a shot at his old WBC 175-pound title. Bernard Hopkins challenges the champ Jean Pascal in tonight's main event in Canada. In the prefight, Hopkins said that if won the title, Dawson would be next. The same goes for Pascal.

Under the tutelage of new trainer Emmanuel Stewart, Dawson threw his punches with more conviction, but still seemed to be unwilling to really pour it on against Diaconu, who was a bit outclassed.

Dawson, 28, outlanded Diaconu 240 to 105. He pummeled the Romanian with 157 power shots, landing at a 59 percent clip. By the end of the fight, Diaconu (27-3, 15 KOs) had significant bruising around his left with a cut below the eye on the cheek. He had redness around his right eye as well.

Dawson lost the title last summer against Pascal. The Haitian living in Canada was ahead on the scorecards in the 11th when a headbutt busted open a huge cut over Dawson's eye, forced a stoppage. Pascal won the belt via technical decision.

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