41-year-old Glen Johnson made an emphatic return to the super middleweight division, stopping his friend and fellow Super Six tournament replacement fighter Allan Green early in the eighth round to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.
Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KO) was dominant to those of us watching on TV here, but was fairly even on the cards of the Showtime broadcast team and those scoring live on press row, who were highlighted on the broadcast. But to my eye, Green (29-3, 20 KO) was just outclassed by a better, more well-rounded fighter. And that comes with the fact that I can honestly say that I felt Green looked as good as he has in a couple of years in this bout. He had trouble with Johnson's power, and with Johnson's activity. Green had moments where he looked quite sharp, and he obviously had a better gameplan this fight than against Andre Ward, but he's now out in the open. With no more fights in the Super Six, Green is back to the drawing board.
Realistically, I think we just have to accept that Green is a good fighter on his best nights, and is never going to become the top fighter that many felt he could have been a few years ago. He's just not quite that level of fighter.
The official scores at the time of stoppage were 68-65 Johnson, and two cards were 67-66 for Green. Bad Left Hook's card at the time of stoppage was Johnson ahead 69-64, with Green competitive most of the way, but just not winning the rounds.
Our live coverage continues here with the Lopez-Marquez main event, and then we'll move to HBO for the Judah-Matthysse fight.