Why did Glen Johnson struggle so bad at super middleweight?

he was 40 years old and shriveled up when fighting guys in their prime at the end of his career. he lost a lot of close fights at 168 and the guys he fought were all top 5 or 10. hardly laughable. this thread is stupid, go away

 

MAJR, I listed 17 fighters that Hopkins ruined/derailed and you only touched upon 4 of those, 1 of the 4 you made cases for being this one Glen Johnson.

Hopkins took away Glen Johnson's '0' and also derailed him. 5 years later 2 divisions higher, 8 wins 8 defeats and 2 draws later, Johnson came back onto the rails to scrape past Clinton Woods to become world champion, shattered the shaky chin of a declining Roy Jones Jr then split 2 fights with Tarver. This success at LHW lasted '16 months', he then went back to being a tough LHW contender and a SMW punchbag.

Joe Calzaghe had just walked through Kessler's right uppercuts at SMW and his chin looked sturdy but after Hopkins his chin began to look shaky. After the pyrrhic victory over Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe had reached the pinnacle of his illustrious career. He was finally being recognised by his own neighbours, he was being given the "champs discount" at his local cornershop, the parking ticket inspector no longer issued parking fines to the champ, his barbers took a little longer on his headpiece, people were posing next to him with their phone cameras, Enzo Calzaghe was started to be taken seriously at his local pub..... all this resulted from becoming the Ring LHW champion. Not only that, Joe Calzaghe was boxing's cash cow then behind Manny Pacquiao, top 3 ranked P4P fighter on the planet and was being chased by fighters across 3 weight divisions, things had never looked this good for the Newbridge assassin. However the controversial split decision pyrrhic victory over Hopkins was still embedded in Calzaghe's head as he got dropped by a shot to **** Roy Jones Jr next fight and ran away from his new found success to become a cocaine sniffing background dancer for British national television. Hopkins wanted a rematch, and Calzaghe didn't want it, Hopkins was a risk.

Ok, we can settle on maybe W-arren's fault for not offering enough cash, but I was making a point.

Howard Eastman was really and truly undefeated (Joppy got gifted the decision), after he got 'BHop'd', Eastman went onto 7 wins and 9 losses but prior to Hopkins the man looked undefeated. The point stands, Hopkins took away the man's mojo just like he took away Calzaghe's.

Hoya had no business at MW is agreed upon. My point was clear, Hopkins took away Hoya's mojo and Hoya became full time promoter.

Just look at Hopkins track record after his opponents got 'BHop'd'

- Cloud goes from Tyson wannabe to a punchbag

- Dawson goes from Bad Chad Dawson to Sad Glass Jawson

- Pascal goes from Lineal LHW champ to off duty Haitian police officer

- Pavlik goes from undefeated bogeyman to retired alcoholic

- Calzaghe goes from top of the boxing world to cocain sniffing background dancer on national television

- Wright goes from defensive master to never winning a fight again

- Tarver goes from employment to unemployment

- Taylor goes from 'the future' to being called a glass jaw fraud

- Eastman goes from seemingly undefeated to getting 10 defeats

- Hoya goes from top P4P fighter into full time promoter

- Trinidad goes from P4P #1 to marathon runner

- Johnson goes from undefeated prospect to being passed around SMW to being tough LHW contender

- Joe Lipsey goes from undefeated prospect to retired and possibly missing

 

It seems the LHW division may have been the last chance saloon for ex MW's and SMW's to get some success.

Reggie Johnson, Hopkins, went to LHW skipping the SMW division, and found success after losing their MW championships.

Clinton Woods failed to hold onto the SMW commonwealth championship but had world championship success at LHW.

Silvio branco could only win the WBU belts at MW and SMW, but LHW won actual World titles.

I think this may also be the case for Johnson.

 

Dawson beat Johnson both times. Clearly.

 

And Johnson's "win" over Tarver was a mild robbery.

 

It looks as though SMW must have been overall a tougher division.
G Johnson isnt the only fighter to not do as well at SMW, look at how A Abraham was a strong MW but never the same at SMW and how J Taylor was a MW world champ but after that, at SMW went 1-3 and dropped back to MW. Look at how C Woods became a LHW champ but lost at SMW to Starie and was given a tough night by Baker, or how Braehmer became a LHW champ but lost to Veit at SMW.

 

Branco, was thinking about him when on this thread. He did beat R Reid at SMW. That was an odd fight. Reid just seemed to blow hot and cold

 

You could add A Stevenson who lost at SMW to D Boone but became the man at LHW

 

I remember a quote from Reid saying that he thought Branco was short and stocky, and got a big surprise when he saw him in the flesh.

Probably a combination of poor preparation and a bad style match-up for Reid. Branco was a pretty good fighter, but on paper you wouldn't have backed him to dominate Reid like he did.

 

SMW may have been tougher than the LHW division, but the stats show it was not as tough as the MW division.