Glen Johnson considering a move to cruiserweight

After losing a clear decision to Chad Dawson on Saturday in Connecticut, longtime light heavyweight star and former world champion Glen Johnson won't be retiring, and is mulling a move to cruiserweight.

"I'm thinking about moving up to cruiserweight," he told me. Johnson weighed in at 175 pounds before the most recent fight, the most allowed for a light heavyweight fight. The cap in the cruiserweight division is 200 pounds, quite a leap.

"I believe it makes better sense," Johnson said. "Chad Dawson was able to run and stay away from me. I didn't have the speed to keep up with him and make him fight like I expected him to. With cruiserweights, we'll be dealing with bigger guys who can't get away. With the pressure that I bring, I may not be able to take someone out with the one big punch, but I stay busy and can get guys with continuous shots and work them down."

He says he wasn't really a knockout puncher as a light heavyweight, so he wouldn't expect to be as a cruiser either. Aside from the age factor, the shift would fit Johnson's career. "I like to come into a division, find out who's best in the division, then beat him so I can be the guy. Since I could never get a rematch with Dawson, I could never be the guy there anymore."

This almost happened earlier this year, too, when it was proposed that Johnson face reigning cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek. HBO turned that fight down for whatever reason, and Adamek was left to fight Johnathon Banks and Bobby Gunn before jumping to heavyweight.

Johnson turns 41 in January, so age may wind up being a factor. There's the chance that he's simply at the end of his line, and that another jump in weight is just too much. But it's a pretty Glen Johnson type move: Brave and risky.