By Michael Collins: Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) is hoping that Saturday’s fight against 33-year-old former world heavyweight title challenger Kevin Johnson (28-2-1, 13 KO’s) is a mere formality when he meets up with the American at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Fury, 24, has had things pretty much his own way against the weak 2nd and 3rd tier opposition that he’s been carefully matched against his career. Johnson, however, is cut from a different set of cloth then the fodder that Fury’s promoter has fed him, and we could see Fury get really tested in this fight.
Johnson gave 6’7″ WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko a real tough time in losing to him by a 12 round unanimous decision three years ago in 2009. That has got to be the hardest lopsided decision I’ve ever seen a fighter win before because that was no easy win for Vitali over Johnson.
Both of Vitali’s eyes were badly swollen by the end of the fight, and it’s hard to imagine how badly Vitali would have looked had Johnson let his hands go in a real way instead of mainly throwing jabs. Fury doesn’t have any of Vitali’s power or his great boxing skills, so he’ll probably struggle a lot in this fight. Fury is like a big 6’9′ basketball player that has turned to boxing, and who wins based on size alone rather than because of speed, power and boxing ability.
Johnson is more of a well schooled athlete compared to Fury, and he knows how to do a litle different things in the ring with his jabs, power, combinations and movement.
Johnson’s best wins have come against Alex Leapai and Albert Sosnowski. Johnson is a lot better than his resume would have you believe. He’s just not been matched against a lot of big name, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have amazing talent because he does.