And you see all those red squares that represent losses on his record (of which there are quite a few)? He’ll tell you they made him the fighter he is today.
"Well, you learn how to fight when you start fighting real fighters, I think," said Johnson, on the most recent edition of “The Main Event." You can’t really- at least I don’t believe, anyways- learn to fight by fighting guys you know going in you can beat. You’re learning nothing. There are too many second-round knockouts that you’re going to get off a guy. You know going into the fight you were going to beat that guy. You’re not going to learn much in those fights.
"But you go into these fights where this guy has the potential to beat you if you’re not on your A-game. Then, those are the fights you learn from."
Johnson admits he took on the typical cannon fodder coming up as a fledgling fighter. But he says there was a good reason for that. "I fought some soft competition because I started boxing late. I started boxing when I was 20 years old. So I didn’t have a lot of experience during those times. I was getting experience, kinda learning on the job. So for me, when I started fighting and stopped worrying about what the competition is like, that is when my skills started to grow and I started to get better."
And because he didn’t have an influential adviser like an Al Haymon (who can fast-track a mummy to HBO, it seems) or a powerful promoter to back him, Johnson was forced to use his passport early and often after his loss to Hopkins. Forget Mel Gibson, this guy is the real “Road Warrior.”
"And yeah, I faced some losses along the way and got the growth- but you can’t pay for that," said the 41-year-young Johnson.
In the light of the recent setback suffered by Danny Jacobs at the heavy hands of Dmitry Pirog, it gets you thinking- was Jacobs really prepared for such a test? After facing a collection of mediocre, blown-up welterweights, he was then put in with a legitimate threat. In many ways, he looked like the young swimmer who had never strayed too far from the shallow end of the pool who was suddenly thrust into the Atlantic Ocean. Just one fight away from being anointed HBO’s newest star, he was drowned by a Pirog right hand in the fifth round of their fight last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay.
There used to be a train of thought back in the old days that if a young prospect didn’t have at least a loss or two on his record going into his first title fight, he really wasn’t ready for it. But things have changed. And the plight of Jacobs is really systemic. Networks want to feature undefeated, flashy fighters. Managers and promoters, knowing this, show extreme caution in nurturing their boxers.
In many ways, Johnson was that guy prior to his loss to Hopkins. But from that, he was forced to grow up like Rudy Huxtable. He calls that experience “priceless” and adds that his philosophy has far-reaching effects on the business. "That’s why I believe it is our wrongdoing, I think, by glorifying a guy to be undefeated. There’s no other sport that has to be undefeated- only boxing. That is one of the reasons why, right now, you have a guy like Floyd [Mayweather], who don’t want to take no risks of losing his ’0’ because that is what glorifies him. That is what we glorify in boxing; I think that’s what is killing the sport. We should let our fighters fight real fights and put on the best fights for the fans and take those risks and still glorify those guys. And still, don’t pass those guys to the side who have a defeat because he has a loss on his record and then look for the next undefeated guy. That’s why our sport is not what it once was.
"You said it yourself; I’m a ’throwback’ guy,” added Johnson. “When boxing was boxing and it’s most popular, there was no undefeated guy. So now boxing is on the lowest of the low because we are glorifying undefeated guys," he continued. "We’re looking for undefeated guys and that’s what we’ve based our sport on, the guy who’s undefeated. And I think that’s the big punch in the face of boxing right now."
Once again, Johnson will be facing another young, undefeated fighter in Cloud. And while they are squaring off in St. Louis, Cloud is the house fighter as he is promoted by Don King. Cloud, who has been plagued by managerial and promotional turmoil the past few years, has pretty much had things his way throughout his career. He’s basically run through anyone put in front of him with ease. But he may not know what he has gotten himself into.
"I don’t think he does," said one Chad Dawson, who knows Johnson all too well, having been the recipient of a disputed decision against the veteran in 2008 and then not showing much interest in engaging him last November and moving his way to a decision victory. "Tavoris Cloud is another young guy like myself; Glen Johnson’s up there in age but he’s still a warrior, a road warrior. I think it’ll be a good fight but I definitely think Glen Johnson will give him a run for the money."
Like Dawson before him, to prove his mettle, Cloud’s gotta get past this hard, hard man, who has earned the respect and admiration of those in the sport. He isn’t about style, just substance. Johnson has a huge advocate in the tough-to-please Teddy Atlas, noted trainer and color commentator for ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
"He’s one of my favorite people in boxing," he told Maxboxing this week. "He’s one of the people that makes me feel good when I see him. He’s one of the people that continues to keep my faith in the sport in all dimensions of the sport. From the fighters to the administrators to everything that’s good about the sport. He’s a gentleman; he’s just a class human being. He’s a good human being. He knows about different things. One day he was doing an interview with me and he talked about the foundation that I run and asked, ’If there’s anything I can be helpful with?’ Here’s a guy who thinks about the right things."
This pair thinks along the same line as it relates to the upbringing of young prospects.
"A couple of times he heard me on the air talking about these young fighters coming up that don’t get put in, not in responsible fights, proper fights to develop them. That they just get their record built up and they’re not developing their fighters," said Atlas. "He said, ’Teddy, you’re right; I agree with you. If you ever want me to come on the air and talk about that from my perspective, I’d be glad to do it.’"
Atlas says it’s no mistake that Johnson is a much better fighter as a double-digit loss fighter in his 40s than the undefeated guy he was in his mid-to-late 20s.
"This is a kid that learned by fighting; he learned the hard way. He didn’t have somebody protecting him. They put him in fights and he got robbed in a lot of fights. Sometimes he lost close fights. But the most important thing is- he became a fighter. He became a fighter. He developed in every area; every dimension of being a fighter, he got to understand. He got immersed in the sport. Where he understood how to control yourself, he understood how not to feel sorry for yourself. He understood when you have control of certain things where you have to make the decision in those confines. He understood to appreciate different things. He just developed by fighting fights that at the end of the day, you could point fingers at some of the guys early in his career that managed him and put him in fights- but at the end of the day, they might have done him a favor. Because he did develop into a reliable fighter.
"And that’s what you’re trying to do, whether you’re a lawyer or a doctor. You’re trying to become dependable and reliable; you’re trying to become consistent. And he became a consistent professional fighter," said Atlas.
So during these losses to Merqui Sosa, Sven Ottke, Julio Gonzalez, Omar Sheika, Clinton Woods and Silvio Branco (which Johnson considers his worst case of getting jobbed by the judges), when did the light bulb turn on for him?
"It’s along the way, I really don’t know which particular fight but all of those fights, the wins and losses and even those losing streaks I went on, I learned soooo much and I always feel so much better going into the next fight, so much more confident because of what I saw, I learned in the last fight," said Johnson, whose career will perhaps be just as much defined for his stick-to-it-tiveness than his wins over Roy Jones and Antonio Tarver.
"Even though I lost and a lot of those losses are not REAL losses, a lot of them are wins but again, just because how boxing is shady and our promoters are so determined to have an undefeated guy and when you’re on the B-side, they rip you off to keep the guy undefeated. They make sure to do everything they can to ensure the guy a victory. So a lot of those losses give me confidence that I can beat the best guys.
"So that’s when the light went on for me. Just knowing I can beat these guys because I just did. I just was robbed."
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GLEN
On “The Main Event,” I asked Johnson, if it was an affront to his sensibilities as a blue-collar boxer that the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather- a lucrative match-up where both individuals stood to clear at least $35 million each- could not be consummated.
He said with a chuckle, "Yeah, certainly; I shake my head. But I don’t think it’s Pacquiao or Mayweather; I think it’s more Mayweather than anything else. I mean, Mayweather is a privileged guy; he don’t really have to fight for that money because he can fight a guy he knows he can beat for $20 million. He can fight two of those guys and still make that $40 million that we would like to see him make in that one fight.
"We have to know that we are the ones who make him so privileged and he has the right to ride it out. We are the boxing fans who put him where we are. And he has the right to now ride that out and do what he’s doing."
In other words, those who created and supported the monster now have to live with it.
THE REAL ROSS?
I got a text message from Gabe Montoya informing me on Wednesday night that one of his new followers on Twitter was “RossGreenburg,” which just happens to be the name of the HBO Sports President. And his page does feature a picture of “Ross the Boss.”
But what was interesting was that his first tweet read: “I found out dumb boxing fans we’re talking about me here. I’m keeping my eye out on you scumbags.”
Sorry, no way that’s Greenburg.
It has to be Tim Bradley.
FRIDAY FLURRIES
Plenty of boxing on Friday night, from “ShoBox,” to “Friday Night Fights” and “Solo Boxeo” on Telefutura. As always, check your local listings and set your DVRs...Before the HBO doubleheader on Saturday night, IBF junior middleweight titlist Cory Spinks faces Cornelius Bundrage at the Scottrade Center...So is Lance Armstrong the next American idol to fall?...Jerry Rice gets inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night; I’ll make the argument that not only is he the best wide receiver that ever lived but maybe the greatest player ever, period. Michael Irvin once dubbed him “Jesus in Cleats”...The Miami Hurricanes began fall camp and, yes, Seantrel Henderson was at Greentree Practice Fields...I think it’s time for Tiger Woods to go back to his gallery of women. Also for hitters in baseball to go back on the juice (Just kidding…well...)....After two episodes, I really like “Master Chef” on Fox...This week’s edition of “The Main Event” features Johnson and Atlas...I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.
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