Klitschko-Johnson already sold out – Boxing News

By Eric Thomas: The December 12th bout between World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (38-2, 37 KOs) and challenger Kevin Johnson (22-0-1, 9 KO’s), set for the PostFinance Arena in Bern, Switzerland, is already reportedly sold out. The arena seats 17,000, and all the tickets have sold out for the fight. It shows how popular the 38-year-old Klitschko in Switzerland, because Klitschko was unable to sell out his September 26th fight against Chris Arreola, at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California.

If Klitschko can’t sell out an arena against the best fighter in the United States, it’s doubtful he will ever be able to sell out an arena in the U.S. short of fighting his brother IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. That will never happen, both Klitschko brothers says. Instead, Klitschko will have to be satisfied fighting the light-hitting 30-year-old Kevin Johnson, a fighter who isn’t well known or popular in his home country of the United States. Perhaps because of that and because of the poor figures for Klitschko’s fight with Chris Arreola, the fight will be taking place in Switzerland where Klitschko appears to be much better liked.

Few people are giving Johnson much of any chance at beating Klitschko. The reason being that Johnson can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag and is more of a fighter that depends completely on his jab and a lot of movement to get his wins. That kind of thing works well against the exclusively B level fighters that Johnson has fought during his six year pro career but it won’t work against the 38-year-old Klitschko.

This bout has mismatch written all over it, maybe even worse than the Arreola-Klitschko fight that took place in September. Johnson would have a chance if he had some power to get a little respect from Klitschko, but he has none. Johnson depends on his jab to win his fights and that won’t work against Klitschko.

Johnson probably has a better jab than Vitali, but he won’t be able to match him with power shots. That’s where Johnson is going to have problems. Another area of concern for Johnson is that he’s become more stationary in the past two years and tends to cover up on the ropes and fire back shots. If Johnson can’t stay off the ropes, he’s going to get flattened quickly by Vitali.

The Switzerland must be starved for boxing because they’re really lapping up this fight. The last major fight that took place in that country was the controversial bout between World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and challenger Evander Holyfield last year in December.

The Switzerland were very interested in that fight as well, and sold out the arena. It’s highly doubtful that the Valuev-Holyfield would have sold out in the U.S. unless the fight took place in a small 1000 seat arena or high school gym. Boxing fans are much more particular in the U.S. and don’t purchase fights that they could consider to be a farce.

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