Kevin Johnson, the American heavyweight, challenged Vitaly Klitschko for his belt in Berne, Switzerland. He didn’t win the belt; instead he disgraced himself for 12 rounds.
Once considered a prospect, Mr. Johnson sold out his manhood in front of a crowd of 17,000 restless boxing fans.
He spent the fight covering up, playing rope-a-dope, and taunting Klitschko with a series of bizarre pantomimed gestures. If he thought to tire Klitscko out and take over the fight in later rounds, he went about it all wrong: he allowed Klitschko to fight at his own pace and didn’t press the action once.
At no point during the match did Mr. Johnson try to win the fight. He was there solely to collect his paycheck and slink back home to Asbury Park. One judge gave Johnson a round; the other two had Klitschko winning all twelve.
In a final irony, Mr. Johnson aggressively stepped up in Klitschko’s face immediately after the final bell as if challenging him to a fight.
Mr. Johnson should have come to Switzerland to fight for his honor and to put on a show for the paying customers. Going the distance against a knockout machine like Vitali Klitschko may sound like a good plan in the weeks leading up to the big fight, but for those of us who had to witness the absurdity of it all, it’s no fun at all.
American boxing is tainted by dismal perfomances like these. If boxers and their promoters want fans to continue paying a premium to see fights, this sort of thing has to stop. The Europeans don’t put up with it, so why should we?
Add Kevin Johnson to the list of boxers (including Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, and several other over-hyped American boxers) whom I have no interest in watching in the future.
Anyone who wants to know why MMA is outdrawing boxing in America just has to watch the last fights from these three boxers to understand it all. In the UFC and other MMA organizations, if you don’t perform well for the paying customers, you’re out on your ear, win or lose.