03.08.07 – By Chris Williams: Undefeated heavyweight boxing prospect Kevin Johnson (16-0, 6 KOs), defeated Damian Wills (22-2-1, 16 KOs), winning a 10-round lopsided decision on Friday night at the Far West Rodeo, in Doraville, Georgia. Johnson, 27, using mostly his jab, pecked Wills for 10 continuous and thoroughly frustrating him in the process.
While fighting, Johnson often bantered back and forth with the ringside girls, who happened to be cheering for Wills for much of the fight. In the first round, Wills, 27, spent a good deal of time bulling Johnson to the ropes, where Wills would land shots to the head at close range.
However, by staying in close to Johnson, Wills was in effect preventing himself from getting any real power on his punches because he wasn’t at the optimal boxing distance. Wills, though, stayed as close as he could to Johnson for most of the fight, perhaps because he wanted to avoid getting hit with Johnson’s excellent jabs. As it turns out, it wasn’t an effective move, mainly because Johnson was able to land more than enough jabs anytime there was distance between the two fighters.
In the second round, Johnson continued throwing exclusively jabs while piling up points. It was during this round that Wills seemed to slow way down on his offense, as he looked frustrated, not knowing what to do to deal with Johnson’s jab.
In rounds three and four, Johnson began mixing in an occasional left and right hand to go with his constant jabs, though they were far less effective than his jab alone, which was all he really needed in the fight.
In the sixth round, Wills appeared very tired, and was mostly staying in close to Johnson so that he could try to rest on the inside. However, Johnson began to start hitting him repeatedly with punches to the face while in a clinch, which infuriated Wills, who began to start throwing punches again. During this round, Johnson spent a lot of time taking to the ring girls while fighting Wills at the same time, sometimes getting tagged in the face by Wills, who took advantage of Johnson’s banter.
Johnson continued dominating Wills in rounds seven thru ten, essentially hitting him at will with jabs, and left-right combinations. By this time, Wills was throwing very few punches, and the ones he did throw, were slow and didn’t have any real power behind them. Through it all, Johnson never stopped talking and showboating in the ring and showing that he had little respect for Wills.
The judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 100-91.