By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Promoter Lou DiBella confirmed that a light heavyweight bout between Chad Dawson and Andrzej Fonfara has been added to the Danny Garcia-Keith Thurman undercard March 4 in Brooklyn.
It is possible the Dawson-Fonfara fight could become part of CBS’ telecast that night from Barclays Center, either live or on delay. That’ll depend on the length of the two fights certain to be televised.
The broadcast is set to begin with a junior middleweight match that’ll send Erickson Lubin (17-0, 12 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, against Mexico’s Jorge Cota (25-1, 22 KOs) in a 10-rounder. The main event is Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs), the WBC world welterweight champion, versus Clearwater, Florida’s Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), the WBA world welterweight champion, in a 12-rounder.
Poland’s Fonfara (28-4, 16 KOs, 1 NC) will fight for the first time since Long Island’s Joe Smith Jr. (23-1, 19 KOs) recorded a stunning first-round knockout against him June 18 at UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Fonfara, 29, had beaten current WBA world light heavyweight title-holder Nathan Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) by unanimous decision and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) by technical knockout in the two bouts before Smith defeated him.
The 34-year-old Dawson, a former undisputed light heavyweight champion, will return from a 10½-month layoff when the southpaw enters the ring for this 10-rounder against Fonfara.
Dawson (34-4, 19 KOs, 2 NC), of New Haven, Connecticut, stopped Houston’s Cornelius White (23-5, 17 KOs) in his last bout, April 16 in Mashantucket, Connecticut. That fourth-round TKO victory for Dawson marked his second straight win since Pennsylvania’s Tommy Karpency (27-6-1, 16 KOs) upset Dawson by split decision in October 2014 in Mashantucket.
He is just 3-3 in his last six fights overall, however, including back-to-back TKO losses to IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) in September 2012 and WBC 175-pound champion Adonis Stevenson (28-1, 23 KOs) in June 2013.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
