Trout survives Dawson in near catastrophic upset

 
DANIEL Dawson was one punch away from scoring one of the biggest upsets in boxing this year, flooring the elusive Austin Trout twice en route to dropping a unanimous points decision at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in California.

 
Trout, 28, (now 27-2, 14 KOs) went into the fight having lost two consecutive fights, while looking for his much overdue entry back into the winners circle. Dawson, 36, (now 40-4-1, 26 KOs) appeared to fit the mould for a comeback fight perfectly.

 
Dawson was on a winning streak, albeit against modest opposition as well as carrying a WBA #15 world rating and a respected resume on paper.

 
The only problem was that Dawson forgot to read the script.

 
At one point, the Perth-based kickboxing convert came mightily close to shocking the boxing world. Once upon a time, Trout was the WBA light middleweight champion and he hadn’t tasted the canvas in twenty-six appearances in the squared circle.

 
But after ten competitive rounds with Dawson, Trout has now been floored four times in three fights consecutively.

 
Dawson floored Trout heavily in the third round when Trout walked onto a Dawson right-hand, placing the American into a world of hurt. Dawson continued to attack Trout and floored him again when they exchanged hooks later in the round.

 
However, Trout remarkably hung on.

 
Part of his survival was his ability to avoid Dawson’s looping right hand, while the other was due to Dawson taking his foot off the pedal – effectively costing him a desperately needed marquee win – as the Australian was potentially only one punch away from ending the fight.

 
At the conclusion of ten rounds, all three judges favoured Trout by a 97-90 margin.

 
Although Dawson – who injured his calf during the fight – landed the clearly harder blows in the fight, Trout showed his mettle and battled back to floor Dawson heavily in the eight round with an immaculate three-punch combination that would’ve arguably knocked out lesser men.

 
From there, Dawson’s chance to win the fight was lost and the Australian had to settle for a points loss.

 
Despite the loss, Dawson made an emphatic statement and it looks as if the losing performance may work in his favour. Whether he gets another opportunity to redeem himself remains to be seen.