PRESS RELEASE: Bad” Chad Dawson and Ian “The Cobra” Gardner are both highly regarded prospects, but their styles are as different as preppies and hippies.  One is conventional; the other is as unorthodox as you can get.  Both, however, are confident of victory when they square off in the 12-round super middleweight main event on “ShoBox: The New Generation” this Friday, Nov. 18, at 11 p.m. ET/PT (tape delayed on west coast) on SHOWTIME.

 

Dawson (18-0, 13 KOs), of New Haven, Conn., by way of Hartsville, S.C., is a boxer who likes to get on the inside and punch.  His mission is to catch Gardner, who is perpetually in motion.

 

            “Gardner is the ugliest fighter I have ever seen,” said Dawson, who is trained by 2004 Boxing Writers Association of America Trainer of the Year, Dan Birmingham.  “He is awkward, sloppy, slaps his punches and holds a lot.  He beat a couple of good guys, but the reason he beat them is because people sit there and look at the stupid things he does.  I will not give him a chance to do his thing. He will be out of there by the fifth round.  Quite honestly, he is a little embarrassing for boxing because there is no boxing there.”

 

            Gardner (19-2, seven KOs), of Toronto, Canada, is accustomed to being unappreciated.   

 

            “Every time I take a fight, my opponent gets a tape of me and says ‘I can beat this kid, blah, blah, blah.’  But then they get in there and they get lost.  Once they start figuring out what is going on, the fight is over,” Gardner said.  “At the end of the day, winning is the only thing that is important.  No matter what Dawson says, it will be my hand that gets raised on Nov. 18.”

 

In the Gary Shaw Productions, LLC, co-feature, Benjamin Flores (11-0, four KOs) opposes Daniel Jimenez (13-1-1, eight KOs) in an eight-round junior lightweight bout from New Haven, Conn.  The telecast represents the 68th in the popular “ShoBox” series, which debuted on SHOWTIME in July 2001.

Nick Charles will call the action from ringside, with Steve Farhood serving as expert analyst.  The executive producer of the telecast is Gordon Hall, with Richard Gaughan producing.

For information on “ShoBox: The New Generation” and SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecasts, including complete fighter bios, records, related stories and more, please go to the SHOWTIME website at http://www.sho.com/boxing.