By Dean Parr
On January 30th, Yusaf Mack (28-2-2 17KOs) will fight against Glen Johnson (49-13-2 33KOs) on the undercard of Shane Mosley vs. Andre Berto. This will be the Philadelphia light heavyweight's toughest bout to date, and many are unsure as to whether he can step up to Johnson's level. His trainer John Tandy has entirely different perception on the upcoming fight though, as he revealed to BoxingScene.com.
“We are really looking forward to it!” exclaimed John. “I have been with Yusaf for 2 years now, and we've won all 5 fights of our fights together - he has worked really hard to get where he is now. It seems he is only remembered for his losses before we got together, which is harsh; he was weight drained and didn’t train how a world-class athlete should train and he suffered. Despite this, he still put on a hell of a show for the crowd in both the Andrade and Berrio fights.”
Tandy continued to explain that the Johnson bout will show how Mack is evolving as a fighter. “We have been looking to change and I think this fight will be the fight that finally erases those skeletons. There is no one else in the division that is more like Andrade than Johnson, he breaks fighters down with constant pressure, so Mack feels this is a real chance to show the world he is a different guy,” explained Tandy.
“We thought that the win over Chris Henry would help Mack prove it, as before that fight everyone seemed to think Henry was going to crush Mack the same way Andrade did,” Tandy reminisced.
“Unfortunately, since the win people decided that Henry was not all that, he has since proved he is a great fighter with a great win over Shaun George but the Mack win was forgotten. I am sure that Henry he will continue to prove he is a force in the light heavyweight division, and I'm sure our paths will cross again.”
The ‘House of Champions’ trainer was also keen to note that he is by no means underestimating Johnson. “Glen Johnson is a two time world champion and while he may have a number of losses on his record, so many of them could have gone his way, that he could quite easily be sitting on a record of about 59-3 and have a lot more money in the bank than I am sure he has,” Tandy remarked.
“Glen Johnson has been the figurehead of the light heavyweight division for the last 10 years - I am sorry it will have to be Yusaf to send him into retirement without the real respect he deserved.”
In his last fight, Mack stopped DeAndrey Abron (then 15-4) in four rounds, and his performance pleased Tandy.
He said: “It was a good performance, but again I'm sure not many people think Abron is all that. To be fair though, he won the NABO title and then pushed WBO champion Zsolt Erdei the full distance out in Germany. The two other losses were joke stoppages out in Europe so he was coming back to America looking for a win with Jack Lowe (Kelly Pavlik’s trainer) in his corner, and he had a good camp preparing for the Mack fight.”
John followed this up by beaming: “Yusaf fought him perfectly. We knew he was a similar type of fighter to Daniel Judah and if we hurt him too early he would go on the run and it would make for a tough nights work, so we went in with the gameplan to draw him in before taking him out and Yusaf followed the plan to perfection.
“After the 3rd round, I told Yusaf to pick it up and take him out and he did just that. Since then, Abron pushed Prince Badi Ajamu the distance, so he is a tough campaigner and Yusaf made him look limited. Yusaf is a class act and I hope that after this fight people will start giving him the respect he deserves, he is one of the most exciting fighters in the division.”
The question still remains though whether Mack can step up to the world-class level of Glen Johnson. Johnson has beaten excellent fighters such as Clinton Woods, Roy Jones Jr., and Antonio Tarver in the past, and is of a level different to anything Mack has encountered. This, though, will only raise the game of Mack and spur him on to bigger and better things according to Tandy.
“Johnson is one of the top guys in the division, and has proved that over and over again,” he confirmed. “He is Yusaf’s toughest fight to date and it is time for him to step up and show the world what he can do. I definitely think Mack is capable of being one of, if not the top, guy in the division, and a win here will bring the big fights against Chad Dawson and guys like that. A lot of the other guys have had things a lot easier than Yusaf - he has had to fight a number of tough guys to get to where he is now, winning the NABA and NABF titles en route.”
He added: “He's fought Daniel Judah, who has a draw and a loss to Glen Johnson, Omar Pittman who had WBC champion Jean Pascal out on his feet with a left hook in the 9th round of their fight (only the bell saved Pascal), Chris Henry who is in his prime and destroyed Shaun George recently and was unlucky not to be a world champion himself when losing a close decision to Adrian Diaconu out in Romania, and finally Abron who has also fought for a title.
“Guys like Cloud have fought Gonzalez who looked on his last legs and then Clinton Woods; a guy that should have three registered losses to Johnson. Gabriel Campillo who fought Hugo Garay who was handed a belt when Danny Green retired and now is having joke defences against Bebuit Shumenov who has basically paid for a shot. So Yusaf certainly now should have been fighting for a title himself, but if we have to go through Glen Johnson to get it then so be it.”
Going into the upcoming contest, Glen Johnson will be 41 years old. In spite of this, Tandy doesn't see age as being a huge factor in the bout. “In modern times with the progression of knowledge and nutrition, fighters are lasting a lot longer than they used to,” Tandy reasoned. “Bernard Hopkins is still one of the top fighters out there, and he is almost 45 years old. Johnson is still a few years younger than him.”
Tandy also thinks that Johnson is a late bloomer. “He seems to be like a fine wine and has improved with age. He's strong and fit, and will be a great challenge,” he declared.
“People say he didn’t look as good against Dawson last time out, but two of the judges saw the contest as 115-113, so that is a pretty close fight and Dawson is the hot young champion, so if he can still push guys like that to the limit he is still up there. It is just a little over a year since he lost an even closer fight with Dawson, so we are preparing for the best Glen Johnson can offer. He will know a loss here will make it very difficult for him to get back to the top so he will be training hard and giving this his all.”
John's confidence has also been boosted by how well the preparations of Mack are going. “Things are going really well,” he summarised. “We obviously have a few weeks left, but Yusaf is stronger and fitter than he has ever been. He has been here before and has learned from the mistakes he made, and we're looking for him to peak at the right time. We've had great sparring with guys like Edison Miranda and Roman Karmazin, and we have Prince Badi Ajamu coming up to camp next week to finish out the camp, so I am happy with our progress.”
This bout will be an eliminator for the IBF light heavyweight title, and supposing Mack gets through Johnson, Tandy is confident his charge can go all the way. He stated:
“I actually see Glen Johnson as a bigger challenge than Tavoris Cloud. Cloud is a good strong young fighter, but he has relatively no experience, he beat Gonzalez who looked out on his feet from the opening round, then fought Clinton Woods who has also seen better days. Woods lost badly to Antonio Tarver and then looked a shadow of his former self against Cloud. Woods doesn’t hit hard but he was snapping the head of Cloud back with jabs.”
Tandy continued: “I think the light heavyweight division is very open at the moment and I think Dawson is the only one who will cause us problems mainly due to the clash of styles. Pascal, Campillo and [Juergen] Braehmer are all there for the taking, we just need the opportunities to fight these guys.”
To finish off, Tandy wanted to ensure that people would give Mack his due for a win over Johnson.
He said: “I just hope people will recognize Yusaf as one of the top guys out there after winning this fight, and don't give the usual of ‘Johnson was past his best’ etc. They did it with Henry - as I said, before the fight Henry was going to destroy Yusaf, and no one thought he had a chance. Then when he beat him many were saying Henry was a nobody. Now he has beaten George he is back on the scene as a contender.”
“Johnson narrowly lost out to Dawson only 2 months ago”, he continued, “he is still on his game and is still a great fighter - please give Yusaf the respect he deserves when he wins this fight. All the guys that have stuck with him through the hard times, Mack is better, bigger and stronger than he ever was before watch out for his 6th straight win and then onto bigger and better things and lets start unifying these title belts and put the light heavyweight division back on the map. Make sure your watching on the 30th and I guarantee there will be fireworks,” Tandy concluded.
