Glen Johnson: The "Road Warrior" To The Rescue
By Cliff Rold
He doesn’t have to win the tournament to be its champion.
He doesn’t have to win another fight at all to earn the right to be called ‘champ.’
There is no denying that the Showtime “Super Six” Super Middleweight tournament needed a credibility boost when WBC titlist Mikkel Kessler exited with an eye injury over the summer. It needed credibility steroids when former Olympian Andre Dirrell dropped out after him with a claim of lingering concussion affects.
Despite losses in two of his last three contests, former Ring Magazine and IBF Light Heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (50-14-2, 34 KO) the “Road Warrior” was just the boost the field needed.
When Kessler exited, suggestions of leaping straight to the semi-finals, and losing three full contests, abounded. Given a weak performance from the second round replacement for Jermain Taylor, Allan Green (29-2, 20 KO), against WBA titlist Andre Ward earlier this year, skipping straight to a final four didn’t sound all bad to many.
Johnson’s willingness to come back to a 168 lb. class he has not competed in since 2000 sounds better any way it is sliced. At 41, Johnson may be getting past it but he’s something else too.
Look at the resumes of each of the men left in the Super Six, at Green, Ward (22-0, 13 KO), Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO), or Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO). Johnson, given the combination of skills, experience, and accomplishment he still brings to bear, can make a case on paper as the toughest assignment any of these men have had to date.
Ward and Froch would have the best arguments against that. With his opening “Super Six” win over Kessler, Ward beat the presumed leader of the class. Froch has faced now-reigning Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal, Taylor, Dirrell, and Kessler. He has wins over the first three and was in Kessler’s face every step of the way. But, even with Froch, depth of resume has come about suddenly.
The Super Six, particularly with all of the replacements, has been as much about proving the mettle of its participants as proving the way towards a ‘best Super Middleweight in the world.’ All of the initial entrants came with big question marks.
Was Taylor more shot than hot? Were the virtually untested Dirrell and Ward ready? Was Kessler still as good as he looked before tangling with Joe Calzaghe? Were Abraham and Froch really as good as their numbers? When Taylor exited, the new question was could Green fight as good as he talked?
As the tournament enters stage three of the preliminary rounds, most of the questions have yet to be genuinely answered and many will just plain not be in this format.
We know Taylor was pretty close to shot entering the field and the assumption remains that he is until proven otherwise. For Taylor’s sake, one can hope the honorable southern gentleman doesn’t risk further concussions in the ring. Kessler, in losing and then winning, looked vulnerable while proving new things about his heart and determination in the face of eroding physical skills.
Everything else is still on the table. Dirrell didn’t get a chance to prove he could put together a full twelve round use of his obvious talents, losing narrowly to Froch and then winning by DQ in a fight where he was fading badly late against Abraham. What answers remain to be found in Dirrell will come somewhere, sometime, else.
Ward was obviously ready and now one can ask if he is prepared to assume the head of the table. He needs someone rough, someone nasty to push him. Abraham, even with a dominating IBF Middleweight belt reign, hadn’t faced the toughest of fields before the Super Six and his struggles with Dirrell raised questions while the wild Froch looked better in losing to Kessler than in winning against Dirrell.
All of these men, and a Green who will attempt to save his career this Saturday night (9 PM EST/PST) on Showtime, stand to benefit from Johnson. Green stands to benefit most of all. In August, Johnson overcame some rocky moments to give as good as he got for much of the night against IBF Light Heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud. While aged, Johnson still, yes still, is not old. If Green can win, he will advance to the Super Six semi-finals with a new lease on fistic life.
If Johnson wins, and he should be favored to do so, he can play any number of roles. Against a Froch or Abraham, he’ll play one half of a Fight of the Year candidate. Seriously, could either man against a Johnson proven capable of still competing at Super Middleweight miss?
Against Ward, Johnson would provide the sort of quality veteran test Ward hasn’t seen yet. The 2004 U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist would be expected to pass the test but Johnson’s ability to be the test counts for much.
None of this considers the ‘what if’ of Johnson winning the whole damn thing. That can be saved for another day. For now, his presence is enough to consider.
For the most part, the Super Six contestants have had each other in filling out the picture of who they are. Johnson doesn’t need any of them for that. This is a man with arguably the deepest pool of quality opponents faced from Middleweight to Light Heavyweight during the last fifteen years. Others may have won more fights, may even have beaten Johnson, but the well documented hard luck case has seen almost all, from Bernard Hopkinks to Sven Ottke to Roy Jones to Antonio Tarver and a slew of contenders between.
Now, after giving a new generation in Cloud and, before him Chad Dawson, hell, he prepares for one more assault. As a replacement player, the tournament could not have done better.
Weekly Ledger
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Cliff’s Notes… With myriad distractions, the 24/7 reviews are running a little behind but part two is coming as is a big report card for the weekend action ahead…Jose Sulaiman stomping his foot for Vitali Klitschko to be able to fight Tomasz Adamek before the Odlanier Solis-Ray Austin winner should bother no one. Klitschko-Adamek could actually generate interest outside Germany so, yeah, make that one…Wladimir Sidorenko-Nonito Donaire will fly under the radar but should be getting more buzz amongst the hardcore faithful…Then again, there’s suddenly so much going on that December probably seems like years away.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com