Gordon Williams, Contributor
Glen Johnson
It was a warm Tuesday afternoon when Glen Johnson stopped somewhere in Miami to refresh himself with a smoothie.
As he waited for the cool drink, the Jamaican-born boxer greeted a caller on his cellphone. He sounded upbeat and courteous.
"Everything is good now," said the man nicknamed 'Gentleman Glen'. "Everything's nice and sharp."
That was less than an hour before he hit the road to Tampa, another city in the United States state of Florida where tonight, Johnson will transform into the fearsome personality that better fits his other alias - 'Road Warrior'. Awaiting him at the St Pete Times Forum is Chad Dawson, the American who holds the World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight crown that Johnson desperately wants.
The undefeated Dawson is a huge test for Johnson. In some ways he's an even bigger gamble.
The Jamaican, at 39, is a former world champion, a technical and tactical master in the ring. But Dawson at 25, with 17 knockouts from 25 bouts, is a bubbling, young speedball with power and championship pedigree of his own. Furthermore, Johnson snubbed a mandatory chance at the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, held by Britain's Clinton Woods, later this year. Dawson wanted Johnson, sensing he could catch the Jamaican on the downside of his skills and use him as a stepping stone to more recognition. The Jamaican was not willing to back down.
"This guy chose me," Johnson said. "Now we just have to deal with him."
URGENCY
Although Johnson knows time is running out on a ring career that started close to 20 years ago, he was confident enough to take the risk than wait for the Brit.
"Anytime you get a shot at the world title can be realistically your last," he explained recently. "This is an urgency from two years now; since we last lost the title in 2005. The time for me is now. Definitely. We're not looking towards tomorrow. Tonight is it."
Johnson lost the world title to American Antonio Tarver, who also fights tonight on the same card against the Jamaican's old rival Woods. But he is backing himself against Dawson. The hard work that he claims guarantees his success, has already been done.
"All cylinders are on fire," he said. "We see the victory. We just have to claim it."
A win tonight will mark yet another personal triumph for Johnson. His professional ring record of 59 fights, 47 wins, 11 losses and two draws is as much a testament to his skill and stamina as it is to his courage.
He has beaten the big names of the light heavyweight division - Woods, Tarver and fellow American Roy Jones Jr, once considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Yet Johnson has been victimised by boxing's fickle fortunes, suffering several controversial losses in his career, including one to Woods. Some experts have admitted Johnson has simply been robbed of victories that would have assured him a place among boxing's all-time elite.
BIG ODDS
But Johnson has never wallowed in his own misfortune. He knows that the bar is always higher for a Jamaican to succeed in a sport dominated by Americans and Europeans, even for someone who has lived in the US since his teens.
"Winning the fight is easy; to beat the man in front of you," Johnson said. "But it's not just beating the man in front of you. It's also convincing the judges if a (knockout) doesn't come."
To him, it's all about demanding the recognition he believes is rightly his.
"I have to earn the respect I deserve in the ring," Johnson said.
If he does not stop Dawson early, Johnson is convinced he has plenty to last the scheduled 12 rounds. Six rounds sparred on Monday capped the 100 he completed in preparation for tonight's bout using younger partners to mimic Dawson's quickness and strength. The days since arriving in Tampa, were used to "keep sweating" to make the 175-pound limit at yesterday's weigh-in. Johnson is ready now.
"No problems, no injuries," he said.
LOOKING BACK
Yet, Johnson admits that he sometimes affords himself a glance into his past. Unlike many would-be boxers, his first step into a ring was not fueled by pent-up anger or childhood pain. He had a happy early life with his grandparents between small towns in Clarendon - Osbourne Store and Swansea.
Then, the Jamaican had only heard of Muhammad Ali, but he admired the "sweet science".
Childhood scuffles heightened his appetite for a fight, but Johnson was not originally driven by a macabre wish to demolish any man. Instead, he first walked into the Miami Police Club gym in Coconut Grove, Florida determined to beat a pudgy waistline.
"I was a fat guy trying to lose weight," Johnson recalled.
He also wanted to get past the restlessness of youth. It had not been easy making the transition from skipping through riverbeds and listening to grandma's old country tales to South Florida, a multicultural honey-pot strewn with skyscrapers, fast cars, weaving highways and the unrelenting pressure that comes with the United States.
"Life was simpler then," Johnson said of his childhood.
His father was never around to notice or take charge. Johnson was not an "A" student and high school in Florida featured visits to the principal's office and even suspension. The offense was often fighting. Johnson lost a carpenter apprentice's job for fighting. He was unwilling to be pushed around by anyone.
His mother Enid Salmon, who brought him to the US after leaving him in Jamaica for years to pursue a better life for her family, battled to mold him.
"All of us had to adjust and all of us were going through one phase or the another," Salmon explained a few years ago. "I guess it was more difficult for him. His way was different from mine. He was already a teenager (when he came to the U.S.) so we had our ups and downs."
Johnson acknowledged those struggles too. He also remembered those who doubted he would amount to anything good and was determined to turn their bad predictions into positives.
"(Growing up) those times you had big dreams," he said. "You tried to shake off what people said you were going to be. It's a motivating factor. You want to prove them wrong."
It worked.
"We started out not knowing what will happen and ended up being champion of the world," Johnson said.
Johnson also managed to assimilate into American life. He sought stability, beginning a pro boxing career hoping to make US$10,000 for the down payment on a house, and continued to work for a while as a carpenter even after winning the IBF title in February 2004.
Yet throughout the ups and downs Johnson never let go of his Jamaican roots. As his dreams grew, so did his pride in the land of his birth. Reggae music often accompanies Johnson into the ring. His fight trunks sometimes carry the black, green and gold flag. His wife Jillian is from Manchester and he still goes to Jamaica. When he enters the ring, Johnson carries the island's hopes with him.
"We're always trying to win for Jamaica," he said.
Tonight, the "Road Warrior" will make one more effort.
-Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.
File photo shows Glen Johnson (right) as he connects with a right during the fifth round of a boxing match on May, 16, 2007, in his win over Montell Griffin at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Johnson won by TKO in the 11th.
Johnson also scored a TKO, this time in the eighth round against Colombian Hugo Pineda.
