FightFranchise | Klitschko Dominates Johnson

Vitali Klitschko 39-2 (37) easily turned back the challenge of survival minded Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson 22-1-1 (9) tonight in 12 one sided rounds.

Straight from the first bell, the fate of the fight was decided. Johnson decided to lay on the ropes ducking and diving while Vitali came forward looking to land heavy blows. Johnson showboated every time he got hit hard and all night rolled his shoulders, tapped his chin and touched his heart even though he lost nearly every round.

The first four rounds all followed this pattern with Vitali trundling forward in his jerky manner and Johnson happy to survive while popping the occasional jab. His jab did land several times on the odd times Johnson decided to throw it and Vitali’s eyes were both puffy from early on. However Vitali was totally in command and all three judges had it 40-36 on the WBC open scoring system.

Rounds 5 and 6 were also similar but Johnson did finally show a bit of fight in round 7, throwing and landing a couple of combinations but even then it was probably a Vitali round. Any thought of a comeback were soon dashed though as Vitali upped the pace in round 8 and landed many hard punches to the chin of Johnson. Johnson for all his faults tonight did show a tremendous ability to absorb punches. The judges after 8 rounds had Klitschko ahead by 80-72 (twice) and 79-73.

This writer was impressed that Klitschko continued this pace for the remainder of the fight and each round got progressively worse for Johnson although the way he continued to showboat, you would have thought he was winning. He stood and glared at a visibly angry Klitschko at the end of round 11, although Klitschko made him pay in the 12th with several big punches and laughably pointed at the sky to try and divert Johnson’s attention while landing a punch. One big right though seemed to stun Johnson with 50 seconds remaining.

However Johnson stayed upright at the final bell at which point he again tapped his heart and refused to embrace Vitali before pushing out at Wladimir.

The result was a formality and the scorecards read 120-108 (twice) and 119-109. Vitali although not exciting still looks like it would take a mammoth effort to beat him, especially on points while Johnson surely sees his stock lowered. Why he didn’t at least try and go out on his shield is beyond me.

On the undercard, enormous Russian Alexander Ustinov 19-0 (15) remained unbeaten in widely outpointing Monte Barrett 34-9 (20). Barrett was stubborn but is well past his best.

Ustinov dropped Barrett in the very 1st round but couldn’t find a similar punch again as Barrett dodged and dived through the remainder of the bout. Barrett had some success as Ustinov slowed but was well beaten.

However Barrett was stopped in 5 by David Haye and in 2 by Odlanier Solis in his last two bouts so Ustinov didn’t make the impression he was looking for. In fact Ustinov has gone the distance against the four toughest opponents he has faced so it seems like the former K1 champion is not as hard a puncher as first thought.