off a big win against future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins in April. At the press conference, he said that it was his desire to drop down in weight and challenge Ward rather than fight lesser-known opponents at light heavyweight. Dawson started his career at super middleweight, but hadn't fought at the weight since February 2006. The fight ended in round ten with a technical knockout victory for Ward when Dawson asked the referee for the fight to be ended with the words: "It's over. I'm finished. I'm done." In the first two rounds, Ward and Dawson felt each other out, with neither fighter having much success, though Dawson was able to land a few counter right hooks as Ward lunged inside. In the third round, Ward dropped Dawson with a left hook and dominated the round. Again in the fourth round, Ward was able to drop Dawson, in another dominating round. From fifth round until the end of the fight, Ward was able to neutralize Dawson's jab and work rate, seemingly out boxing and frustrating Dawson throughout. Then, in the tenth round, Ward dropped Dawson to a knee after a solid combination, which prompted referee Steve Smoger to stop the fight after Dawson could not continue. At the time of stoppage, Ward was ahead 90–79, 89–80, and 89–80 on all three judges' scorecards. For the loss, Dawson earned $600,000, whilst Ward had a total $1,367,500 purse. The fight was watched by an average 1.3 million viewers on HBO. In 2013, Dawson spoke out about the fight and said it was a "set-up by HBO and other people." He claimed that it was done to make him look "vulnerable and expose him with weight loss." Ward vs. Pavlik cancelled fight Ward was scheduled to defend his super middleweight titles against former unified middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik on January 26, 2013, at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. However, an injury sustained by Ward originally postponed the bout for 4 more weeks and the fight was expected to take place on February 23, 2013. The injury was more severe than originally thought and led to the cancellation of the fight as well as the subsequent retirement of Pavlik. On March 23, 2013, the WBC stripped Ward of the WBC super-middleweight title belt for being inactive for a long period of time, and for failing to face a mandatory challenger. They granted