won a unanimous decision and claimed the regional NABF light heavyweight title. After suffering a flash knockdown in the opening seconds of the first round, Dawson dominated the fight and pulled away on the judges' scorecards by 117–110, 117–110, and 116–111. WBC champion At age 24, on February 3, 2007, Dawson won the WBC light heavyweight title against the undefeated, top-ten ranked champion Tomasz Adamek. The judges gave Dawson a unanimous decision victory, with scores of 118–108, 117–109, and 116–110. In June 2007, Dawson defended the WBC title for the first time, in a fight with Jesus Ruiz (19–5–0), winning by technical knockout in round six. The fight was broadcast on Showtime as part of a card that featured former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver. On September 29, 2007, Dawson defeated Epifanio Mendoza by fourth-round TKO in his second title defense. In April 2008 as his third title defense, Dawson retained the belt by a controversial unanimous decision victory against challenger Glen Johnson. The three judges each had the fight scored 116–112 in favor of the champion Dawson. Again aired on Showtime, for Dawson the card marked the second occasion for which he and Tarver fought in separate bouts on the same card, with Tarver winning each featured bout. Dawson then vacated the WBC title in mid-2008. Dawson, who is married and has three sons, still lives and trains in New Haven, Connecticut. His trainer is "Iceman" John Scully. He was formerly trained by Dan Birmingham, Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. On October 11, 2008, at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Dawson fought IBF light heavyweight title holder Antonio Tarver. Dawson, who controlled the pace and landed most of the significant punches for a majority of the fight, was more active in methodically wearing out his opponent. Tarver landed the occasional punch, but Dawson was in control for most of the fight. With 2:11 left in the final round, Dawson scored a knockdown against Tarver, the only knockdown in the fight. Dawson won the fight by unanimous decision with scores of 117–110 from two judges and 118–109 from the third judge. Dawson earned $800,000 for the fight and Tarver earned $1 million. On November 9, the day after Joe Calzaghe's win over Roy Jones Jr., Dawson issued a press release challenging Calzaghe and offered to fight him on his home turf in Wales. Dawson stated "I'm ready