Jesse Hart defeats Dashon Johnson

By Boxing News - 03/18/2016 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Undefeated #3 WBO super middleweight contender Jesse Hart (20-0, 16 KOs) had to struggle to beat journeyman Dashon Johnson (19-19-3, 6 KOs by an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the 2300 Arena, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

The final judges’ scores were 98-91, 97-92 and 95-94. The most accurate score of the three was the 95-94 score. Hart barely won the fight, and was getting hit all night long. Hart showed very little in the way of defensive skills, and his offense wasn’t much better. He would throw wild shots that often missed badly.

This was supposed to have been an easy fight for the 25-year-old Hart, especially with the way that he had been talking bold about Gennady Golovkin this past week.

Hart’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank was talking recently about wanting to match Hart against unbeaten Top Rank super middleweight Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez for the summer. After tonight’s performance by Hart, Arum might not want make that move. Hart needs a lot more work before he’s ready fight anyone remotely good.

Hart ran out of gas in the second half of the fight like he’d done previously in a recent fight. Johnson was then able to nail Hart with some big shots and hurt him visibly. It was fortunate for Hart that he wasn’t fighting a higher class of fighter than Johnson, because he would have been in trouble if he’d been in with anyone good.

I think Golovkin is safe if he moves up to 168. Hart is no threat to beating Golovkin, and probably no threat to beating anyone else in the top 15. Bob Arum is going to need to re-think the idea of putting Hart in with Ramirez if he wants to keep Hart from getting beaten.

Other boxing results on the card:

Mike Reed UD 6 Samuel Amoako
Greg Jackson SD 4 Gladwin Ortiz
Ismael Garcia SD 6 Carlos Garcia
Ramesis Gil TKO 2 Victor Vasquez
Scott Kelleher TKO 1 Josue Rivera
LeShawn Rodriguez TKO 2 Jose Cortes
Jerome Conquest UD 6 Jules Blackwell
Isaiah Wise, North Philly KO 4 Kareem Gladney



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