By Sean McDaniel: The May 7th Prizefighter tourney for heavyweights will have two very good heavyweights in former Cuban amateur Mike Perez (13-0, 10 KO’s) and heavyweight contender Kevin Johnson (24-1-1, 10 KO’s) added to the tourney recently.

The tournament also has Martin Rogan from Ireland, Richel Hersisia, and Konstantin Airech from Russia. However, the most attention is with Johnson and Perez. These two fighters stand out head and shoulders among the rest.

Perez, 25, has potential to be a heavyweight contender/gatekeeper type fighter. I can’t see the guy ever winning a title because he’s simply too short at 6’0” and his arms aren’t long enough to compete against some of the taller heavyweights that can jab.

However, if the 31-year-old Johnson retreats to the ropes like he did in his one-sided 12 round decision loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in December 2009, Perez will give Johnson a beating and win by a lopsided decision. Johnson has a great chin and excellent defense, which make it all but impossible for Perez to knock him out.

Johnson may be too good for Perez, though, because with these fights being short three round bouts, Johnson is capable of moving around and jabbing Perez’s head off for that many rounds without getting hit too much. I’d have to pick Johnson as the favorite to win the entire tournament unless he does something stupid and just hangs on the ropes against Perez.

You don’t want to do that with Perez because he’s good at working over stationary opponents with his thudding punches and his big power shots. Perez is heavy for a six-footer, weighing in the 240s. He needs to lose some of his extra weight because he’s been looking slow lately.

As for Rogan, Airech and Hersisia, they don’t stand a chance of winning the tournament. They’re decent fighters but not in the same league as Johnson and Perez.