Kevin Johnson's power: Deceptive record?

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Kevin Johnson is about to face the WBC beast and champion Vitali Klitschko in a few weeks. He has only nine knockouts in his 23 pro fights and he is a heavy, heavy underdog. VK has never lost on points and the only one who genuinely stopped him with their power was another beast-a lion, Lennox Lewis on cuts after ripping him up badly in a knockdown drag-out title fight. Johnson has 22 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses. I think he's a fine fighter, even if I don't give him a great chance against Vitali. But a lot of people are saying he has no pop to his punches. I think maybe we're being fooled by his record a bit. It's the norm that if you're not a big puncher, you tend to pick up a majority of your total career knockouts in your first 15-20+ fights because they're not likely going to be against good competition. If you're a recognized prospect from the beginning, your first 15-20 fights will probably be against folks who maybe can't box well, don't have solid chins, are taking fights on short notice, maybe in terrible shape, etc. Again, Johnson has just nine knockouts in his 23 fights.

He has gone the ten-round distance with Daniel Bispo, who had been stopped by Fres Oquendo only about four months earlier and would go on to be stopped three more times up till now and lose most of his fights after Johnson along the way. He went the eight-round distance with a Ron Guerrero who had previously been stopped five times, including three times in the very first round. He also went the six-round distance with Andrew Greeley. Is it unfair to pick on this, seeing as how it was only a six-rounder? Greeley now has a record of 14-30-2, with nine knockout losses. When he fought Johnson, he'd already suffered eight of those knockouts, including a straight KO loss in the first round about 5 months prior. All of Greeley's eight knockout losses to that point had been in rounds six and under. With that and an overall knockout percentage in the thirties through so few fights, it's hard to think he's got much of any punching power to worry about...but:

A third of his 9 knockout victories were in his last three fights. Never before this has he had three knockouts in a row, even against complete nobodies. His three opponents included former champ Bruce Seldon, a never stopped nobody named Mathew Greer and former Olympian, undefeated and solid prospect Devin Vargas. That looks like something interesting to me. None of those guys were great or anything like that but definitely notable stoppages for a guy who went the distance with the aforementioned Greeley, and company. This is a guy that wasn't knocking out some really susceptible people with clearly little skill previous to his last three straight knockout victories. I think he realized maybe he wasn't going to get anywhere just out-boxing people, as far as the fans were concerned. I think he really is able to dish some good power out and is willing now. I'm not saying he's a gigantic hitter, but I suspect he can hit pretty well when he wants to. Anybody else think his record is deceptive on this?

...I wonder if he can even land on Vitali anyway...:think... Either way, though I heavily favor Vitali, I don't think Johnson is a pushover. He took 13-0 former Olympian Timur Ibragimov to a draw in his fourth pro fight. He's skilled, maybe can hit better than many think. Not to mention, Vitali hasn't stopped aging. Nobody does. Those legs he uses to control distance, they're going to get tired some day. Those are the legs of an injury-prone 38-year-old hauling around 250 pounds after over 200 amateur fights and 40 pro fights-not even counting his championship kickboxing career. Johnson might end up in the right place at the right time with just enough in his arsenal come next month... Or he could get decapitated in round one. Who the hell knows? It's boxing!

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What? Did you think I was trying to compare Johnson's power to Vitali's? If you did, you probably didn't read that right. I'm only saying I don't think he's feather-fisted. I certainly didn't say he was a a big-time puncher. Only that I think we have a guy who just held back, satisfied to win on points until recently and that I suspect he's a decent puncher. There's nothing far-fetched about that, that I can see.

 

I assume Peter is a far harder puncher, but I think Johnson is a better boxer. Of course, I also voted "Yes, but it doesn't matter, he'll still get starched."