By Scott Gilfoid: Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) is under the general impression that all it takes is for him to beat 33-year-old recently beaten Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson (28-2-1, 13 KO’s) in their fight on December 1st at the boxing world will be impression and take notice of him. Fury and Johnson will be fighting at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Fury said to the BBC Sport “Johnson is just the kind of opponent that I want at this stage of my career. We needed a world class fighter and we have got one and when I take him apart the world will sit up and take notice.”
If this is what Fury thinks will bring him attention from the boxing world then I think he’s badly misjudging fans. I guess if the fans have been living in a cave and haven’t been following the sport for the past three years then they’ll be impressed with a Fury victory over Johnson, but for knowledgeable fans who’ve seen how Johnson has pretty much dropped off the map since his one-sided loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2009, they’ll think different.
Johnson was beaten badly in that fight and really didn’t put in the effort that challengers should be putting in. Then in June of this year, Johnson went into the Prizefighter tournament expecting to win it and was soundly beaten by Tor Hamer. So we’ve got Johnson coming into a fight with Fury on December 1st on the back of that loss. If Johnson can’t even win the Prizefighter tourney against 2nd tier level heavyweights then that doesn’t bode well for him against Fury, even though Fury is more of a fringe level heavyweight contender than a true top 5 guy.
I really don’t see anyone taking notice of Fury if and when he beats Johnson. It takes a lot more than this to get the fans attention, and if this was all it took to create a star out of a fighter then everyone would be fighting Johnson 24/7. Fury is really reaching with this one.
Comments are closed.