Chad Dawson Dominates Antonio Tarver; Vitali Klitschko Regains WBC Title

And just like that, Chad Dawson is now a major force in the world of boxing. The man that chased Antonio Tarver for the better part of 18 months got his chance Saturday night and took him apart, earning a unanimous decision to win a portion of the light heavyweight championship.

The undefeated Dawson (27-0, 17 ko's) scored a knockdown in the 12th round with an uppercut and dominated Tarver (27-5, 19 ko's) throughout. Two judges scored the bout 117-110 with another tallying 118-109 for Dawson, who is now looking for more big fights.

There was talk about him challenging the winner of October 18th's Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins battle or the November 8th Roy Jones Jr./Joe Calzaghe light heavy title match.

"We would absolutely fight the winner of Roy-Calzaghe," Dawson promoter Gary Shaw told ESPN. "We'd fight if Kelly Pavlik wants to come up to 175. If Bernard, who is a real live dog, beats Pavlik and wants to fight, we'll fight."

Vitali Klitschko showed that almost five years off didn't mean a thing as he returned to regain his WBC Heavyweight Championship against Samuel Peter in Berlin, Germany Saturday.

Peter (30-2) didn't answer the bell between the 8th and 9th round, giving the 37-year-old Ukranian fighter back his belt he essentially relinquished when he went on the shelf with a back injury. Vitali (36-2, 35 KOs) now stands with his brother Wladimir as the major heavyweight champions as the latter holds the IBF, IBO and WBO titles.

But will a superfight between the brothers happen anytime soon? They weren't answering questions about it and said their mother requested that bout never happen. Oooookay.

Instead, promoter Don King suggested that retired Lennox Lewis might be a next logical opponent for Vitali. Uhhh, huh? Just because he beat him back in 2003? Sigh.

In MMA news, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman improved to 12-0 with a 1st-round TKO due to strikes over Kerry Schall at 1:06 at Friday's ShoXC event. However, the notable occurrence of the night was Jason Guida's 2nd-round knockout loss to Mamed Khalidov.

From Five Ounces of Pain:

"At one juncture, a visibly winded Guida lost his mouthpiece during an exchange on the ground. The head official paused the contest in search of Guida’s mouthpiece and began to panic when he could not locate it. After a prolonged stoppage in which Guida was given time to rest, the referee finally found a replacement mouthpiece and instructed Guida to put it in.

Guida refused the referee’s instruction and the referee then walked to the cage door and informed officials he was about to disqualify Guida for refusing the replacement mouthpiece. Seconds later, Guida’s original mouthpiece suddenly reappeared.

Despite the extended rest, Guida was still gassed and was finished with only a few seconds remaining in the second round after Khalidov pressured him against the cage and began to unload on Guida, who did not answer any of Khalidov’s shots. The referee called a stop to the bout and an upset Guida actually pushed the official in protest of the decision.

Replays showed that most of the punches Khalidov threw actually landed on Guida’s arms as opposed to his face but the fact remains that Guida used a duck and cover approach while pinned against the cage as his defensive posture and failed to answer any of the strikes with punches of his own.

In addition to his stall tactics and decision to put his hands on an referee, Guida showed a continued lack of sportsmanship by storming out of the cage before the official decision had been announced to the crowd.

Following the bout, SHOWTIME color commentator Stephen Quadros commented that while Guida might be a likable person outside of the cage, his conduct inside of it told a different story."

Yikes.

Josh Nason has written and maintained Ropes, Ring and Cage since 2007. He can be reached at [e-mail].