By Paul Strauss: Glen Johnson, as always, made a tough fight. This time it was against the undefeated Tavoris Cloud. The Road Warrior showed that even at age forty-one, he still has a lot left in the tank. The Scottrade Center crowd of about ten thousand in St. Louis, MO was impressed with the guile and toughness of Johnson, and his ability to absorb Cloud’s flashy combinations, and then come back with his own shots. However, the judges were less impressed, and more concerned with Glen’s too frequent holding. It probably cost him the fight.
With this victory, Cloud is now eyeing Chad “Bad” Dawson for a big fight, but that match-up will undoubtedly be much tougher than his fight tonight against a much slower and relatively stationary opponent.
Johnson has an uncanny way of getting opponents to fight his fight and Cloud was no exception. Cloud could and should have managed distance better. As many before him, Tarvoris got caught up in trying to beat up on what Johnson appears to present as a big target. In the meantime, Glen would just keep pumping his jab, and inviting Cloud’s barrage. Johnson would let the rapid fire flurries bounce off his gloves and arms. Occasionally he would move his head as well. When Glen was satisfied the worst was over, he would retaliate with his own shots. Most of his punches were more of a nuisance than power shots, but they were intended as such, so he could set up the zingers that would come when Cloud would open up.
Cloud made things difficult for himself, because throughout most of the fight, he came at Johnson in a straight line, and stayed in front of him after ripping off his impressive combinations. However, even if Johnson negated most of them, some got through, and Johnson was in trouble several times. Only his experience and toughness kept him in the fight. It wasn’t one sided though, as Johnson did get several of those zingers in, both to the head and body, and had Cloud looking for cover more than once. In fact, he had Cloud in trouble as early as the fifth round.
Cloud would come roaring back though, but then again would seem to take minutes off and let Johnson get back into the thick of things. In fact, Cloud seemed content to taking off the entire eighth round, but then came back with more steam in the ninth. Johnson probably took both of those rounds, and at that point unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had the fight a draw.
When the punch stats were added, Johnson had the edge because of his pumping jab. But, the more impressive punches and lightning combinations came from Cloud. Tavoris did look a little worse for wear though, because his left eye started swelling in the second round, and in the ninth round a cut developed over the same eye. The bleeding was kept under control, and the ringside physician gave his “okay to continue”
In the tenth round, Cloud cranked it up another notch, and Johnson’s corner reminded him that he wasn’t going to win a decision and needed to “knock this guy out”. Johnson gave it his best shot, and did in fact land some good shots, especially rights to the head and lefts to the body, but he also held too much and gave judges the impression he was spent. They could also hear Referee Steve Smoger telling Cloud to “Push him off”. As a result, all three scored the fight 116-112 in favor of Cloud.
Coincidentally, that is the same way the three judges saw the main event (116-112) between Devon Alexander and Andriy Kotelnik. However, Alexander was fortunate to have been in there with someone other than a knockout puncher, because he got tagged with some clean shots. The fight started slow with neither man landing much, other than a few jabs. In the second round, Devon started throwing hard straight lefts to the body, and Kotelnik managed to get in a few sharp straight rights to the head. Beginning with the third round, Devon got busier, and the level of emotion in cornerman Keven Cunningham also picked up. He was upset with Devon, because he didn’t think he was “boxing” enough. He wanted Devon to move more side to side after punching. Devon also developed a small cut over the right eye as the result of a clash of heads.
In the sixth round, Kotelnik controlled the action, and timed his shots very well, stinging Devon on several occasions. He continued with the pattern into the seventh. Devon could be heard to grunt or expel air with each shot, which is not only an irritating practice but useless as well. Devon had apparently planned to purposely loop some of his shots. The intent was to get behind Kotelnik’s gloves which he keeps high and tight. But, that strategy allowed Kotelnik to come up the middle with straight counter shots.
In the seventh round, Devon made the mistake of reaching out to grab Kotelnik a few times, which also allowed Andriy to come up the middle. He later tightened things up a bit and stayed busier. Devon definitely was the more active of the two by the tenth round, but in the eleventh he slowed a bit and wasn’t getting his gloves back after throwing combo’s. That again allowed Kotelnik to land some counters, which were almost exclusively to the head. Kotelnik was revved up a bit now, and managed to keep the remaining action very close, but Devon still did more.
Ringside announcer Max Kellerman talked before and after the fight about how Devon Alexander seems to have that “something special” ingredient needed to become great. As an example, he pointed out that Devon managed to attract a lot of attention, garnering a front page feature article in the NYT. Max also credited Devon with having enough magnetism to bring out such boxing luminaries as Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Evander Holyfield. Maybe that coupled with the idea he was trying to showcase his talents in front of the big hometown crowd kept him from being at his best?
In the post fight interview, he admitted he probably deserved a “C” grade for his performance, pointing out that he is usually his toughest critic. However, tonight he wouldn’t get much argument with that grade. The truth is his defense was full of holes. He languished in front of Kotelnik, and his reflexes were not sharp.
In his defense, it might have been all the extra hype involved, or it might have been the style of Kotelnik. Regardless, he needs to quickly correct things if he genuinely hopes to be a realistic future choice for P4P honors, as Max suggests. Tonight he looked more ordinary than great.