WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch successfully completed what has become a rite-of-passage among elite-level fighters in the light-heavyweight and now super-middleweight divisions. He defeated Glen ?The Road Warrior? Johnson via a hard-fought majority decision on Saturday night. Froch thus passed the Johnson Test.
To label Johnson a ?trial horse? would be extremely disrespectful to the 42-year-old master craftsman. Trial horses are journeymen who test the mettle of young prospects who are being brought along in the rankings. Johnson doesn?t test prospects. He tests the best. And sometimes, the best don?t pass the test.
Roy Jones Jr., for example, flunked big-time when Johnson knocked him colder than Newt Gingrich?s presidential prospects. Antonio Tarver also failed the Johnson Test in his first try, dropping a decision ? but he retook the exam, and passed with a points win. Chad Dawson decisioned Johnson in their first fight, but failed the Test because many observers believed that Glen got robbed. Dawson needed to take the Test again in a rematch. This time, he passed convincingly.
IBF light-heavyweight king Tavoris Cloud passed his Johnson Test last year, and it looked as though it just might be time for Johnson to bring his distinguished career to an end. Instead, Johnson dropped down to super-middleweight ? a division in which he had not competed since the year 2000 ? as a late substitute in the Super Six tournament, which was plagued by dropouts. He proceeded to knock out Allan Green, which landed him Saturday?s semi-final match with Froch.
The Green win demonstrated Johnson?s absolute superiority over opponents who are a cut below elite level. In between administering his Johnson Tests, Glen also schooled up-and-comers Daniel Judah and Yusaf Mack.
Even though one judge scored Saturday?s contest 114-114, not even the Johnson camp contested the other scorecards, which tallied 117-111 and 116-112. By fending off Johnson?s trademark pressure and landing plenty of combinations, Froch made the grade in his Johnson Test. Still, as in all his losing fights, Johnson made Froch work hard for the W.
Now, Froch will face WBA champion Andre Ward in the Super Six final. In the absence of any possibility of a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather megafight occurring this year, Froch-Ward will be about as good as it gets. The stylish Ward will be favored to win, but anyone who passes the Johnson Test cannot be discounted.
As for Johnson, nothing happened in the Froch fight that would suggest it?s time for the Road Warrior to hang up his gloves. Like Bernard Hopkins, who is four years Johnson?s senior, Glen retains enough physical ability to implement the ring wisdom he has accumulated over the years.
Hopkins is the only man ever to stop Johnson. He turned the trick back in 1997, when they were both middleweights, and it took him 11 rounds to do it. A rematch 14 or 15 years later would be a lot more compelling and competitive than the one Hopkins had with Roy Jones Jr. last year.
Also, if Ward defeats Froch in their upcoming showdown, he might want to consider taking his own crack at the Johnson Test.
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers.
