By Michael Collins: This Saturday’s fight between heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) and Kevin Johnson (28-2-1, 13 KO’s) will be a WBC heavyweight title eliminator, according to the visitor.co.uk. The fight will take place at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
The winner of this fight will then become the mandatory challenger for World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. However, it’s unclear how much longer Vitali will choose to fight.
There’s a possibility that he has already fought for the last time in beating Manuel Charr last September. But if Vitali choose to continue fighting, he likely won’t jump into a title defense against the winner of the Fury-Johnson fight straightaway because there’s a much more lucrative fight available to him against former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. Vitali has already easily beaten Kevin Johnson by a one-sided 12 round decision in December of 2009, so there’s probably not a whole lot of interest from Vitali’s side to face him again should Johnson get past Fury on Saturday night.
If Fury comes out on top this Saturday against Johnson, he’ll have the choice of fighting Vitali or his brother IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Fury has already he wants that fight, because he sees Wladimir as the #1 heavyweight in boxing and he wants a chance to win four titles at once rather than just one. However, some fans think Fury doesn’t fancy his chances against the hard hitting, steel-chinned Vitali, and is just looking for the easier path. Wladimir has been knocked out several times in his career, and he looked like he stunned by one of the few right hands that his last opponent Mariusz Wach hit him with earlier this month in Wladimir’s 12 round decision win.
In truth, Fury doesn’t look ready for either of the Klitschko. Fury’s ability to talk himself up is perhaps unmatched in the heavyweight division, but in terms of actual ability he’s lacking in a big way. He slaps with his punches, doesn’t have much of a jab, and has little in the way of defensive skills. His feet are his defense now, as he’s become a much more mobile fighter now that he’s lost a lot of weight. But he doesn’t pick off punches with his gloves and he’s going to be in sorry shape if and when he faces Vitali or Wladimir.
The 6’9″ Fury is going to have a hard time beating Johnson on Saturday because this guy has got the arm length to reach him, and Fury’s not used to fighting guys with long enough arms to hit him.