By Sean McDaniel: Despite giving it a little better effort than last when he was totally dominated by Andre Ward, Allan Green (29-3, 20 KO’s) was stopped in the 8th round by 41-year-old Glen Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KO’s) last Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The loss was especially bad because it meant that the 31-year-old Green is now eliminated from taking part in the Super Six tournament and the big paydays had to be nice for Green. However, Green isn’t taking his elimination lying down. He’s decided to appeal the loss to the Nevada State Athletic Commission due the fact that Green was hit with what appeared to be a rabbit shot.

Instead of referee Robert Byrd penalizing Johnson for the rabbit shot, he counted it as a legit knockdown. And then to make matters worse, Byrd stopped the fight while Green was trying to complain about the punch. Even after Green got to his feet at the count of eight, Byrd still stopped the fight.

From Green’s perspective, he must feel horrible be knocked down by what appears to be an illegal punch, and then having the fight stopped on him when he tried to complain. I can understand why Green would want t appeal this. It looked to be a picturesque rabbit shot from Johnson. However, I don’t like Green’s chances of having the loss overturned.

The reason is because Green was the one that bent his head down exposing the back of his head to Johnson. It isn’t as if Johnson worked his way around the back of Green to land the shot. Green made it easy for him by bending down in front of him. With the way that Green was positioned at the time, it was almost impossible for Johnson to hit anything but the back of Green’s head.

It’s a pity. Green was fighting reasonably well at the time of the stoppage and was leading on two of the three judges’ cards. However, Johnson was coming on in the last three rounds and was nailing Green with big right hands that Green had no defense for.