Showtime and Allan Green promoter Lou DiBella are currently considering former light-heavyweight champion Glen Johnson as a possible Stage Three opponent on November 6.
The 41-year-old Johnson is coming off a close, hard-fought decision loss to Tavoris Cloud last month. Johnson accepted that he was hurt early but thought he did enough to win . Some observers scored the contest a draw
Although Johnson’s last super-middleweight bout was in 2000 against Toks Owoh, the Road Warrior told ESPN earlier today that he could make the weight easily. His reasons that he isn’t a big light-heavyweight, and would only have to lose roughly 3-4 more pounds to make weight.
“I definitely think I can make the weight. If you pay attention to my weigh-ins, I weigh like 172, 173 all the time,” Johnson explained. “I stay in the low 170s, so I just have to lose an extra three or four pounds to get into the 168-pound division. I made light heavyweight fairly easy, so I wouldn’t see a problem making that weight. Hard work is what I have done in my career. I’m not going to change that now.”
Allan Green was left without an Super Six opponent following Mikkel Kessler’s eye injury withdrawal last month. Showtime considered altering the tournament’s format from round robin to elimination, but contract specifications prevented the change. Green has zero points following his one-sided decision loss to Andre Ward in June. But he can still advance if he wins his next fight by KO, and Andre Dirrell loses to Andre Ward. However, if Glen Johnson wins by KO under the same scenario, he moves to the semi-finals.
At press time, Glen Johnson expects to receive confirmation on his potential Super Six berth by the end of this week. If approved, Johnson and Green would square off on the undercard of Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez.
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This one was out of left field but understandable. With Sakio Bika declining due to a death in family, and Lucian Bute locked in with his own fight against Jesse Brinkley next month, there aren’t many substitution options. But I strongly doubt Glen Johnson can make super-middleweight without adverse consequences.
Johnson is correct, he weighed in at 173 for his last fight in August. But he looked very drawn, sickly, and dehydrated. His condition makes perfect sense when you see how much weight he put back on the following night.
That’s a 19 pound weight gain in the span of 24 hours! That’s gives you an idea of Glen’s natural weight, and what he goes through to make it down to light-heavyweight. So to go another five pounds from 173 to 168 comes off as very risky.
On the other hand, Allan Green claims his flat performance against Andre Ward was due to being weakened from making super-middleweight. During Showtime’s 360 Fight Camp broadcast, Green can he heard telling Ward that he needs to move up to 175. Now whether that is an excuse or legit issue remains to be seen.
Point is, if this comes off we’d likely see a Glen Johnson far different from hard-nosed, never say die warrior we’ve become accustomed to at light-heavyweight. But money talks, and Glen Johnson has never seen odds that weren’t in his favor. I just hope for the sake of his health, he knows what he’s doing.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 