Glen Johnson (boxer)
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Glengoffe Donovan Johnson (born January 2, 1969 in Clarendon, Jamaica) is a professional boxer, nicknamed Gentleman. He stands at 180cm, around 5'11" tall. Johnson has fought in the middleweight, super-middleweight, and light-heavyweight divisions and has held the IBF and Ring Magazine championships at light heavyweight.
After a promising amateur career faded with a bloody loss to Abid "The Abenator" Khan at the ABC in Paris, the fighter won his first 32 professional fights before being TKO'd by Bernard Hopkins in the penultimate round of a bout at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.
He added 8 more to his tally of losses, most to less than special fighters, including 2 as a Light Heavyweight, before drawing and then beating Clinton Woods with a unanimous decision to earn his shot at the champion, Roy Jones Jr., in what would be an historic and career defining shock upset in September 2004.
The subsequent split decision victory over Antonio Tarver that December made him the undisputed Light Heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It was under the management of Henry Foster and training of Orlando Cuellar that the Jamaican national made this transition, being chosen the 2004 fighter of the year by the Boxing Writer's Association of America.
Known as an easy-going "nice guy", Glen Johnson is something of an anomaly in today's world of boxing. He has proven that a Gentleman outside the ring can still showup inside it, and even make history in the process. This is exemplified in his notbale quote, "I'm not the best, I'm just the guy who's willing to fight the best." Johnson lost the Light Heavyweight title to Antonio Tarver in the rematch.
He defeated fellow Jamaican Richard Hall for the IBA Light-Heavyweight Championship on March 13, 2006.
His most recent bout saw him defeated by the IBF Light Heavyweight title holder Clinton Woods. The fight was fairly close, with both Boxers feeling that they had done enough to win. In the 9th round Johnson was seemingly on the verge of stopping Woods, only for Woods to survive the round. The 10th round though saw a turn of events for the Jamaican who appeared tired from the previous round, and Clinton Woods capitalised on this. Then Woods took the final two rounds and the fight went to a points decision where the judges voted a split decision which handed the fight to and kept the title with Clinton Woods. American Richard Bays scored the fight 115-112 in favour of Woods, Judge Mickey Vann scored the contest 115-113 in favour of Johnson and Roberto Ramirez 116-112 scored in favour of Woods.
It has been reported that Johnson may face Tomasz Adamek in 2007 providing Adamek beats Chad Dawson
[edit] Awards
- 2004 USA Today Fighter of the Year
- 2004 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year
[edit] External links
| Preceded by James Toney |
Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year 2004 |
Succeeded by Ricky Hatton |
| Preceded by Antonio Tarver Vacated |
IBF Light Heavyweight Champion 6 February 2004–December 2004 Stripped |
Succeeded by Clinton Woods |
