Glen Johnson is set to face Yusaf Mack in an IBF light heavyweight eliminator on the January 30 undercard of Shane Mosley-Andre Berto, and he was interviewed by Ryan Burton about that fight and some other career prospects.
Johnson, 40, was soundly defeated by Chad Dawson in a November rematch. But the veteran "Road Warrior" doesn't see it that way.
BoxingScene.com: What do you think a win over Yusaf Mack does for you?
Glen Johnson: Any time I can beat a younger guy it helps me. There are some young guys out there that are there to be beat. Obviously I think I won the first fight with Dawson and I clearly won the second fight with him. Now we move on to whatever else is out there and Yusaf Mack is a credible guy and I look forward to competing with him and winning that fight.
Given his age and how flat-footed he looked against Dawson in the second fight, I favor Johnson against Mack, but don't see it as any sort of given. I don't care what Bernard Hopkins is out there doing at age 44, 40 is still not a prime fighting age for basically everyone else in the sport.
And Johnson saying he "clearly won the second fight" with Dawson is patently ridiculous, and what bothers me is that it sort of discredits all his other claims of being robbed or given the shaft. Johnson has a LOT of good claims to that effect on his record sheet, but this isn't even close to one of them. Dawson outboxed him without breaking a sweat. Was it pretty? No, but part of what wasn't pretty is Johnson couldn't do anything in the fight. Dawson had gotten better since their first encounter. Johnson had not. And Johnson never made a good adjustment to get himself into the fight. He was doing basically the same thing in round 12 he had done in round one, and it was never effective.
But then again, Johnson immediately follows with this:
BoxingScene.com: Speaking of the fight with Dawson you were the aggressor but Dawson was boxing and moving and backing up a lot. What do you think went wrong in the fight?
Glen Johnson: You know Dawson doesn't have to win the fight. He just has to not lose the fight so he did what he was supposed to do which was try to survive. Even his hometown fans that cheered him so loudly (when he entered the ring) were booing him by the end of the fight. They were booing me when I entered the ring and then they started booing him. That goes to show you his commitment to pleasing the fans but again all he has to do is win. If I had his same opportunities I guess I would do things the same way.
So ... what? What's the deal here? Did you win or did he win but the fans booed him for being boring?
I think Glen Johnson's so used to complaining about his losses that he doesn't know what to do with this one.