by Chris Williams: I’ve seen a lot of bad offensive fighters in my day, but after seeing heavyweight contender Kevin Johnson’s performance against World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last Saturday night, I would have to say that Johnson has the worst offensive skills than any of the current top 15 fighters in the division.

Johnson may have a great jab, and good defensive skills, but in terms of offensive skills, I see him as lacking in many areas. What’s so incredible is that Johnson was ranked as high as he was, despite not having faced anyone in the top 15. You would think that the WBC would at least wait until Johnson – or any other heavyweight – had beaten someone of talent in the top 15 before ranking them in the top 10.

Johnson wasted a perfect opportunity in his title shot against Klitschko by staying on the ropes the full 12 rounds and throwing nothing but jabs for the most part. What was he thinking? Having a good jab is a good thing, but if that’s all you have going for you offensively, I don’t see how Johnson thinks he can last long. It’s too bad, because he has some good skills to work on.

Defensively, if you were to get him off the ropes, Johnson could be an excellent fighter. He picks off punches well and is good at ducking them. However, it takes a lot more than that if you want to be a top fighter. You can only go so far with a good jab. Johnson’s right hand and left hook are weak looking, and you would think that a fighter ranked number #6 in the WBC would have more offensive tools than what Johnson showed in the Klitschko fight. It wasn’t just that Johnson was afraid to throw punches. I don’t think he had the weapons to use against Klitschko.

Below are a list of the top fighters in the heavyweight division, at least according to the sanctioning bodies. Of all the fighters listed in the top 15, there are couple that I feel that Johnson may have better offensive skills than. For example, Ustinov, the 6’7″ 300 pound heavyweight, who fought on the undercard of the Klitschko-Johnson fight last Saturday night, looked to have little in the way of offensive skills. I saw no jab from him whatsoever, and his hand speed was dreadful to the say the least. However, Ustinov was capable of loading up with a nice right hand or left hook at times and did succeed in knocking Monte Barrett, his opponent, to the canvas in the 2nd round after catching him near the ropes. I still think that Ustinov has better offensive skills but not by much.

Ray Austin
Oleg Maskaev
Chris Arreola
Manuel Quezada
Denis Boytsov
DaVarryl Williamson
Eddie Chambers
Evander Holyfield
Derric Rossy
Fres Oquendo
Samuel Peter
Juan Carlos Gomez
James Toney
Sam Sexton
Brian Minto
David Tua
Alexander Dimintrenko
Tomasz Adamek
David Haye
Wladimir Klitschko
Nikolay Valuev
Vitali Klitschko
Ruslan Chagaev
Rene Dettweiller
Jonathan Banks
Chauncy Welliver
Gonzalo Omar Basile
Sebastian Koeber
Brian Minto
Lamon Brewster
Kali Meehan
John Ruiz
David Rodriguez
Alexander Ustinov
Alex Lepai