By John Gabriel Thompson – Longtime fan favorite Glen “The Road Warrior” Johnson 50-13-2 is back in action this Saturday night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The battle tested forty-one year old Johnson faces the young, hungry, and undefeated IBF lightweight champion Tavoris Cloud 20-0 (18 KO’s). To say that Cloud lacks the experience of Johnson is not only an understatement, but an unfair comparison, as few today in boxing have fought for so long and against such elite competition. And this, perhaps more than any other factor, is why some of the odds makers in Vegas might be a little off in calling Cloud a favorite.
Cloud has fought one man with more experience than Johnson – Reggie Strickland who boasts a record of 66 wins, 276 losses, and 17 draws. That bit of boxing trivia aside, the twenty-eight year old champion has faced no one like Glen Johnson.. Cloud’s best wins were his comprehensive destruction of Julio Cesar Gonzalez and his unanimous decision win over Clinton Woods for the vacant title. In these bouts we get some comparison, as Johnson has faced both, losing a close majority decision to Gonzalez and facing Woods three times prior to his bout with Cloud. The first bout between Johnson and Woods, back in 2003, coincidentally was also for the vacant IBF title, and resulted in a draw. In their rematch three months later Glen Johnson earned a close but unanimous decision. They would fight again in 2006, this time Clinton Woods being the IBF titlist, and this time Woods retaining his title via split decision. Clinton Woods was 42-4-1 when he fought Cloud, and somewhat war-torn by then from the likes of three fights with Johnson, two fights with Gonzalez and bouts with former champions Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones, Jr.
Glen “The Road Warrior” Johnson earned the moniker by fighting them all, champions and contenders, often on short notice and in his opponent’s hometown. His resume boasts names like Bernard Hopkins, Clinton Woods (three times), Sven Ottke, Syd Vanderpool, Silvio Branco, Omar Sheika, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Daniel Judah (twice), Eric Harding, Roy Jones, Jr., Antonio Tarver (twice), Montell Griffin, Chad Dawson (twice), and Yusaf Mack. And let’s not forget that Johnson himself was once a young, undefeated fighter with an impressive record of 32-0 (22 KO’s) before he lost for the first time back in 1997. Johnson was dominated and stopped (still to this day his only loss by stoppage) by the legendary Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins 51-5-1, who was the IBF middleweight champion at the time.
While Johnson certainly possesses the edge in experience, the question is if all of this experience translates into battle fatigue. Has Johnson had to dig into the well too many times? Has he absorbed too many punches? Will he grow old in the ring? In his last bout against Yusaf Mack (the Vegas favorite), Johnson proved far too much for his younger opponent, stopping him in the sixth. Though Johnson lost a clear cut unanimous decision to Chad Dawson in the fight before that, Johnson had been coming on strong in the later rounds of their first bout, and the prevailing opinion of the fight is that if it had been an old fashioned fifteen round contest, Johnson would have earned the victory – possibly by stoppage. While Johnson may have slowed a bit, “The Road Warrior” has plenty left in the tank.
The best part of this matchup is that it’s going to come down to aggression, and both men bring it. This is why the Johnson vs. Cloud fight might be the most mouth watering of any on an action filled card with Devon Alexander 20-0 defending his IBF & WBC light welterweight titles against Andriy Kotelnik 31-3-1 (the only man to have beaten Marcos Maidana), and Cory Spinks 37-5 defending his IBF light middleweight title against Cornelius Bundrage 29-4. In Johnson and Cloud, the fans will be treated to two fighters who can be described as “throwbacks;” the kind of fighters who, like the boxers of a hundred years ago, would go toe to toe until only one man is standing. Both men like to come forward. Cloud can box effectively and will trade power punches when pressed. As Johnson fans know, Glen brings the pressure every second of every round. In short, both men come to fight.
Glen Johnson has been stopped only once and that was thirteen years ago by an all-time-great in Hopkins. Johnson’s chin has been tested in wars with some of the best and physically he’s still at the top of his game. Tavoris Cloud has skill, athleticism and power, but at the end of the day he’s never fought a Glen Johnson. In this writer’s estimation, Cloud will win the early rounds, but at some point in the mid to late rounds Johnson’s relentless aggression will take over. Cloud has only been past the fifth round twice. He’s only seen twelve rounds once. If Cloud makes it to the final bell, expect another controversial decision like in Johnson’s first bout with Dawson. However, Cloud will have to dig deep if he expects to make it twelve full rounds with “The Road Warrior.”
John Thompson can be reached at: boxingwriterjohn@gmail.com