Kevin Johnson (boxer)

Kevin Johnson
Data
Birth Name	Kevin Johnson
Fight name	Kingpin
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	7th September 1979
place of birth	Asbury Park
style	Left delivery
size	1.91 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	43
Victories	30th
Knockout victories	16
Defeats	10
draw	1

Kevin Johnson (born September 7, 1979 in Asbury Park , New Jersey , USA ) is an American heavyweight boxer.

career

Kevin Johnson didn't start boxing until he was 18. After 16 amateur fights (14 wins and two losses) he turned pro in 2003. He played his first professional fight on February 13, 2003, which he won by technical knockout in the fourth round.

In his fourth fight in June 2004 Johnson boxed against the much more experienced Uzbek Timur Ibragimow, who was unbeaten in thirteen professional fights at that time. Johnson reached a draw in the four round bout. In the following years he mainly defeated little-known opponents. Since his victory against Damian Willis (previously only one defeat against Chris Arreola ) in 2007, despite his unspectacular boxing style with a relatively low knockout rate, he was next to Arreola as one of the American young hopes in heavyweight division.

His best-known opponent was Bruce Seldon on September 5, 2008 in Atlantic City . Against the 41-year-old Seldon, briefly WBA heavyweight champion in the mid-1990s and known for his loss to Mike Tyson , Johnson won by technical knockout in the fifth round. He was then discussed as an opponent for the British cruiserweight world champion David Haye , who had been promoted to the heavyweight division, but who then competed against Monte Barrett instead .

On May 15, 2009 Johnson defeated the undefeated Devin Vargas by technical knockout in round six and rose to sixth place in the WBC world rankings. He canceled a planned fight against the Cuban Odlanier Solís in September 2009 at short notice, because instead he got the chance to box against Vitali Klitschko for the WBC World Championship on December 12, 2009 . Despite aggressive knockout announcements in the run-up to the duel, Johnson played the fight in the Bern PostFinance Arena very passively and defensively, so that he was clearly defeated on points against the much more active defending champion Klitschko. In the fourth round, however, Johnson Vitali was able to inflict a cut injury under the right eye. When Johnson saw Vitalis bleeding cut, he exulted, “You see, you're bleeding, I'll win.” After the twelve rounds, two judges scored all rounds in Klitschko's favor, while the third judge credited Johnson with one round. Nevertheless, with this unattractive fighting style, Johnson was only the second boxer after Timo Hoffmann to go the full distance of twelve rounds with Vitali Klitschko. Afterward, Johnson revealed that his elbow was injured; which is why he could rarely use his leading hand (the leading hand is Johnson's best weapon).

In 2012 he was defeated by Tor Hamer over three and Tyson Fury over 12 rounds in a WBC eliminator, clearly on points (Johnson never had a chance to win against Fury). In 2013 he lost to the Romanian Christian Hammer on points. The following year he boxed against Dereck Chisora for the international titles of the WBO and WBA . Here, too, Johnson never had a chance to win and even had to go down for the first time in his career. Finally, he lost well over 12 laps on points. In the same year he competed in Bonn against the Lebanese Manuel Charr , whom Vitali Klitschko chose and defeated in 2012 to voluntarily defend his title. The fight was scheduled for 10 rounds. Charr won this fight extremely controversially on points. Not only did Johnson, who was the more active man for much of the fight (especially with the batting hand), disagreed with this judgment, but most of the experts and fans had Johnson up front.

On May 30, 2015 Johnson met the toughest opponent of his career to date: Anthony Joshua , the British Olympic champion in 2012 in the super heavyweight division, knocked Johnson to the ground twice in the first round, the second time Johnson's upper body even fell through the ring ropes . In the second round, the 2011 vice world champion picked up where he left off in the first round: He fired many fast, hard hands and brought some to the finish (too many). Johnson was finally knocked back and defenseless and without a chance, which is why the referee broke off the fight.

List of professional fights

29 wins (14 knockout wins), 6 defeats , 1 draw
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Johnson
2003	13th February	Days Inn, Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States	Stanford Brisbone	Victory / TKO 4th round
	April 24th	Days Inn, Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States	William Bolar	Victory / KO 1st round
	July 13th	Cedar Beach, Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States	Elfair McKnight	Points victory (unanimously) / 4 rounds
2004	17th of June	Harrah's Laughlin, Laughlin, Nevada, United States	Timur Ibragimov	draw
	July 28th	Orange County Fairgrounds, Middletown, New York, United States	DeSean Harper	Victory / TKO 4th round
	30. September	Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut, United States	Robert Wiggins	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	November 6th	Glendale Arena, Phoenix, Arizona, United States	Karl Evans	Victory / TKO 1st round
2005	January 8th	Emerald Queen Casino, Tacoma, Washington, United States	William Cook	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
2006	January 27th	Tropicana Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Robert Kooser	Victory / TKO 1st round
	March 31	Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut, United States	Robert Hawkins	Victory / points victory (unanimously) / 8 rounds
	June 10th	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Daniel Bispo	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	October 11th	Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York, United States	Demetrice King	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	November 10th	Birchwood Manor, Whippany, New Jersey, United States	Michael Rhodes	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	December 8th	Paradise Theater, Bronx, New York, United States	Charles Davis	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
2007	March 29	The Plex, North Charleston, South Carolina, United States	Curtis Taylor	Victory / KO 1st round
	June 9th	Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, Connecticut, United States	Ron Guerrero	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	3rd August	Far West Rodeo, Doraville, Georgia, United States	Damian Wills	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	November 9th	Paradise Theater, Bronx, New York, United States	Andrew Greeley	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	December 5th	Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida, United States	Jermell Barnes	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
2008	April 18	Buffalo Run Casino, Miami, Oklahoma, United States	Terry Smith	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	5th September	Bally's Event Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Bruce Seldon	Victory / TKO 5th round
	November 7th	Ballys Park Place Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Matthew Greer	Victory / TKO 3rd round
2009	May 15	Harrah's Marina Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Devin Vargas	Victory / TKO 6th round
	12th of December	PostFinance-Arena, Bern, Switzerland	Vitali Klitschko	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2010	October 29th	Blake Hotel, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States	Charles Davis	Victory / KO 4th round
2011	22nd of January	The Greenbrier, White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, United States	Julius Long	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	25th June	Elder Entertainment Center, Decatur, Georgia, United States	Harold Sconiers	Victory / TKO 1st round
2012	April 1st	Doomben Racecourse, Ascot, Queensland, Australia	Alex Leapai	Victory / TKO 1st round
	20th June	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom	Tor Hamer	Point defeat (unanimous) / 3 rounds
	20th June	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom	Albert Sosnowski	Points win (shared) / 3 rounds
	20th June	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom	Noureddine Meddoun	Victory / TKO 1st round
	December 1	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK	Tyson Fury	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2013	April 28	Convention and Exhibition Center, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia	Solomon Haumono	Victory / KO 4th round
	20th of December	Messe, Schnelsen, Hamburg, Germany	Christian Hammer	Point loss (unanimous) / 10 rounds
2014	February 15th	Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, London, United Kingdom	Dereck Chisora	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
	12. April	Telekom Dome, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Manuel Charr	Point loss (unanimous) / 10 rounds
2015	30th May	O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, London, United Kingdom	Anthony Joshua	Defeat / TKO 2nd round
2017	March 11	Metroplex, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States	Jamal Woods	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	April 28	Arena Armeec, Sofia, Bulgaria	Kubrat Pulew	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
(Source: BoxRec database )

Web links

• Kevin Johnson in the BoxRec database
• Official website of Kevin Johnson

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klitschko vs. Johnson: Blaring, grimaces and an open account
2. ↑ Kevin Johnson's injury was to blame