Chad Dawson steps in against Eleider Alvarez in Stevenson-Williams co-feature

With previously-designated warm body Maximiliano Jorge Gomez and his amazing first name out of commission, mandatory WBC challenger Eleider Alvarez will instead face former champion Chad Dawson in the co-main event of Adonis Stevenson vs. Thomas Williams Jr.

For those of you too lazy to click on either of those hyperlinks, the fight’s on July 29th on Spike.

Dawson’s (34-4, 19 KO) sobriquet has been rather prophetic of late, as he’s not won a single fight of note since beating Bernard Hopkins in 2012. He’s 3-1 since his disastrous knockout losses to Andre Ward and the aforementioned Stevenson, dropping a split decision to Tommy Karpency amid wins over no-hopers George Blades and Shujaa El Amin.

He most recently knocked out an overcooked Cornelius White in four.

If he can somehow regain the form he had five years ago, when he was an extremely effective technician and spoiler despite an apparent total disinterest in the sport, he could give Alvarez (19-0, 10 KO) trouble. As unlikely as that is, I’d love to see Yvon Michel try to drum up hype for Stevenson-Dawson 2.