Thoughts on him? I thought he should have been more of a major player in the early/mid 2000's. Watching him take out Maskaev right now and he was a pretty awesome heavyweight, good punches and movement for a big guy. It's a shame that Don King/Ruiz got to him (as well as showing up overweight for his later fights).
Kirk had fast hands, good boxing ability, good power, and outside of the Klitschko fight a pretty good chin.
Johnson-Byrd would have been good when Byrd held the IBF (well, for me anyway ). I'd favor Johnson there. I don't think Chris would be able to deal with Kirk at all, it's a shame really but at least he got a few big pay days against Ruiz and Vitali (I assume). [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzU0gNoiQfU[/ame] Brutal KO
Kirk Johnson showed up as fat as a harpooned whale against Vitali. At an obese 260lb, 25lb above his best fighting weight. This win means very little for Vitali.
Kirk Johnson looked great against Maskaev! I would have loved to see that version of Johnson vs Vitali, he might have beaten vitali.
I have always thought that Kirk Johnson could have done so much more with his career. And I am probably the only one who thinks that if Kirk were to take his current "comeback" seriously and stay active while dropping weight, he could probably get back into the top 10 and challenge for a title again.
I can't remember where, but I read that his wife had a miscarriage before the fight and he went into a major depression mode and gained a lot of weight in that time. A fact that many don't know and would cut him some slack if they knew.