I see what your saying bout him not being a drawing power, but he could have been promoted a little better.
How? I'm not a huge fan of Shaw but he's done what he could with Dawson
He could have been on a few PPV undercards or co-headliners early on that would have made him a bigger star.
I'm actually against this. I'm a big fan of fighters building a "base" of fans in certain towns... something not helped by fighters ending up going to Las Vegas or wherever to get on the undercard of a bout where there's no live audience and most fans aren't really paying attention. Shaw tried to do that with Dawson... it's just he didn't connect with his audience.
But really, do we think this would have made a difference? Ever since his first real step up bout (vs Harding) all of Dawsons fights (I think... I can't remember if the Mendoza one was...) have been on either Showtime/HBO or PPV with a heavy emphasis on Showtime. It's not like he's an unknown fighter who's suddenly beaten a few people. Appearing on a couple of PPV undercards wouldn't have changed the fact that people don't like him.
Showtime didn't even ask him to be in the Super Six and he said he would made the 168 limit.
1) Dawson's probably burnt his bridges with Showtime at this stage so I can't imagine they'd be too happy to give him more publicity and promotion.
2) Dawson's signed to an exclusive HBO deal (I believe) which probably prevents him from appearing on Showtime. It's not as if Dawson/Kessler is on the scale of Tyson/Lewis where an agreement could be reached...
3) Considering Dawson's track record of pulling out/avoiding mandated fights if I were Showtime I'd be very worried he'd do it mid way through the tournament.
I just think it a shame that one of the best P4P fighters isn't even a big star and I think he should be, although his fights are boring to some people.
Honestly, I quite like it... I hope it's karma for the disgraceful way he treated Diaconu and Cloud.
I really don't why guys like him and Berto can't sell out their own home town. Sad really. I was happy that Devon was able to this past weekend and I know Ward sells in Oakland.
Berto's problem is that he rarely if ever fought in his home town when he was coming up, instead mainly fighting in New York, California and even Arkansas... ironically I think mainly so he could appear on under cards of bigger shows. You can't expect your local audience to really care for you unless you actually fight in front of them. Both Ward and Alexander have done that, regularly fighting in at least their own state if not always their home town.