By William Holmes

He fought the best of the best.

He is remembered for fighting Roy Jones Jr. and pulling off a shocking upset that helped start the downfall of Jones’ illustrious career.

When the Super Six tournament needed a last minute replacement, they turned to the Road Warrior and he fought valiantly, surprising Allan Green with a victory before succumbing to the eventual finalist Carl Froch.

If you were a fighter and wanted to test yourself, you called the Gentleman Glen Johnson and he gave you a fight, one tougher than you expected.

Glen Johnson (51-17-2), the consummate professional and true warrior, retired last night. After battling and losing to such pros such as Lucian Bute, Carl Froch, Tavoris Cloud, Chad Dawson, and Bernard Hopkins, it wasn’t a big name who retired Johnson, but an upcoming prospect who finally convinced the former IBF Light Heavyweight champion to retire and hang up the gloves.

Andrej Fonfara (22-2) finally ended the career of Glen Johnson. It started off as a close fight that resembled a typical Glen Johnson fight. He covered up and threw one to two punches at a time, maddening his opponent with his ability to take and give punches. Fonfara, however, was simply too young for the elder statesman and clearly won the later rounds.

Fonfara won the fight by scores of 99-91, 97-93, and 97-93.

The Road Warrior never ducked an opponent in his career and gave everyone he fought a tough battle. If only every “stepping stone” fought as valiantly as Glen Johnson.

Another aged warrior fought on Saturday, as Jose Luis Castillo (64-11-1) continues to fight and was able to beat Ivan Popoca (15-2-1) in the welterweight division.

Even though Castillo is faded and has not looked like the fighter of old that so many fans fell in love with, he easily dispatched his over-matched foe and stopped him in the eighth round. Castillo dropped him once in the second round, and badly cut up the face of his opponent. The fight was stopped after the eighth round due to a profusely bleeding Popoca.

By Sam Geraci at Ringside

In the co-main event of the evening, the living legend from Mexicali, MX, Jose Luis Castillo, (63-11-1, 54 KOs) showed that he still has enough in his 38-year-old legs to put on the type of blood and guts performance that has defined his hall-of-fame career in continuing to bust-up a young and motivated Ivan Popoca (15-1-1, 10 KOs) of Chicago, IL, throughout the fight to win by 8th round TKO on cuts. Even though some at ringside felt that the fight should have been allowed for one more round after Popoca appeared to have a strong 8th, Popoca’s face was in terrible condition and Castillo was landing whenever he opened up.

After the fight, Castillo expressed that he injured both hands but felt great after the fight and is ready for anyone.

“I feel good and I am happy with the performance. I hurt my right hand in the fourth and really hurt my left in the sixth and that is why I didn’t knock him out. I feel great though and I am back. I want two more six or eight round fights just to get my timing perfect and then I am ready for anyone and the biggest fights. ”

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