Earlier in the evening, 39-year-old former IBF light heavyweight champion Glen “Road Warrior” Johnson (47-11-2, 32 KO’s) earned a title shot with the current champ Chad Dawson by easily disposing of a fat and out of shape Hugo Pineda (38-4-1, 28 KO’s), inside of eight rounds.
Fighting for only the fifth time since 1999, the 36-year-old southpaw from Barranquilla, Colombia was slow and fleshy. Pineda’s reflexes and will appeared shot and in the 7th, Johnson (174) caught the lefthander with a volley of clubbing right hands to the top of the skull and a left hook to the jaw. Pineda (177) hit the deck on the seat of his trunks and skidded across the ring coming to rest halfway through the ropes.
Pineda managed to beat the count and survive the round but in the 8th, Johnson, Miami, Florida, via Clarendon, Jamaica trapped the Colombian on the ropes and unloaded a brutal series of digging left hooks and thundering right hands to the ribs. Johnson connected with one more hammering right hand to the head and Pineda raised his right glove in surrender and referee David Fields waved off the one-sided contest at 49-seconds of the 8th round.
With the victory, the veteran Johnson is now set to take on the WBC champion Dawson next April 12, at the St. Pete Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida.
“I am ready and willing making a run at the championship,” said Johnson, who holds wins over Roy Jones, Jr. and Antonio Tarver. “I hope Chad Dawson is ready for a fight. I feel good, I feel fast, strong and youthful. There has been a lot made of how young and fast he is and that he is the future of the division. I am looking forward to showing everybody that I am a world champion. It is very important for me to show the people that I can beat the young star. It’ll show that the young stars are afraid to fight me.”
