By Scott Gilfoid: 41-year-old former IBF light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (50-14-2, 34 KO’s) plans on making the most of his great opportunity against Allan Green (29-2, 20 KO’s) in their Super Six tournament bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Johnson is replacing Mikkel Kessler who dropped out of the tournament because of an injury. Johnson has the luck of facing Green, an opponent that he’s well familiar with because he’s sparred with him many times in preparing for fights and helping him prepare for fights. In an article at the Las Vegas Review Journal, Johnson says “My first reaction [to getting picked to fight in the Super Six tournament] was, ‘Wow, what a great opportunity. This is, I think, the best tournament in boxing. When the possibility to be a part of it came up, I immediately started doing what I need to do to get down to the weight. I haven’t done 168 in like 10 years, so I just have to commit myself and go to work.”

That’s the whole problem. Johnson has had recent struggles in making the 175 pound limit for his fights in the light heavyweight division, and now he’s going to have to melt off even more weight. Johnson will no doubt be able to take the fight off, but the question is to what degree will he be weakened by the process.

At 41, taking off weight becomes harder in many cases and for him to have to take off an extra seven pounds could leave him very beatable by Green on November 6th. However, the good news for Johnson is that Green also had the same problem of struggling to make weight in his last fight against Andre Ward in March, and he looked terrible. Green didn’t make any adjustments to being weight drained and fought a really poor fight tactically. Of the Super Six tournament contestants, Johnson would figure to have the best chance of beating Green rather than the other Super Six tournament fighters Andre Ward, Carl Froch, and Arthur Abraham.

Johnson has lost two of his last three fights and has become more of a gate keeper in the light heavyweight division at this point in his career rather than real threat to any of the light heavyweight champions. Johnson matches up well with Green, but not so well against Ward, Abraham and Froch. Those are fights that Johnson will likely lose if he faces them.