OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Sunday May 17th, 2009
by K.M. Stansen

To those of you who find yourselves searching for the next American Heavyweight that actually has the ability to become a key player in what has unraveled into such a sad division in the last few years, your respectable offerings are embarrassingly limited in quantity. Certainly there must be at least one semi-talented American Heavyweight in the mix that is capable of bringing forth not only victories of merit, but also entertainment…correct?

ESPN did a wonderful job Friday on their series Friday Night Fights. of highlighting one of the only 3 young men remaining on the scene that are even worth mentioning in the same sentence with the word ‘potential.’ Amongst the 3 are Chris ‘The entertaining, hard hitting tub of lard’ Arreola… the humble, former OnThEGRiND BoXiNG RaDIo guest and recent Samuel Peter conqueror Eddie Chambers… and of course current OnThEGRiND BoXiNG RaDIo guest, and explosively colorful personality Kevin ‘Kingpin’ Johnson.

The Kingpin headlined in the main event of the ESPN card days after personally making promises to OnThEGRiND BoXiNG RaDIo and it’s many listeners that he wouldn’t slack off anymore, and merely coast to victory’s like in past television appearances, when he relied almost exclusively on his fantastic jab. As an observer I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed him deliver on every statement that was made to the boxing world.

In most of his bouts Johnson has displayed fine attributes, along with promising potential to be a much needed personality amongst a severely socially challenged set of top 10 heavyweight contenders.

Most of his fights did end up on the boring side of the train tracks however due to the fact that Johnson mainly fought conservatively in most of them, and refused to take chances…which resulted in him giving away rounds on low activity, something that still may end up developing into a problem for Johnson stylistically in future fights. All criticisms aside though, Friday night Kevin Johnson fought in a great fight which resulted in him attaining his first stoppage victory in a good, long while.

His opponent Devin Vargas, who didn’t appear to be a slouch himself, aggressively rushed towards Johnson from the opening bell and sought to outwork the Kingpin with a high amount of varied work. Johnson, whose low output was well known, seemed like he was going to put forth a typical performance. The styles though did not shift gears at all through the entire bout, and Kevin Johnson fought very much in a manner that consisted of him picking his spots conservatively and taking lengthy breaks on the ropes, only this time around he mixed up his punches beautifully and sat down fully on his power shots. Most surprisingly, he brutally went for the kill when the knockout presented itself.

Vargas was unloaded upon with every shot within Johnson’s precision punching arsenal. Some truly beautiful work was shown to the body and the head, with the key element being the fact that Kevin Johnson’s shots were making loud, resonating thuds from the jump. Devin Vargas was knocked down twice, stunned noticeably many times during the course of the fight, and was generally busted up by a Kevin Johnson who was looking to impress. The showing was very solid in all areas with the exceptions of defense and work rate. Kevin Johnson physically asserted that his possibly promising attributes were indeed very real, and even though the two lacking area’s were evidently visible, they themselves also looked a stitch better.

The best credit however that I can give to Kevin ‘Kingpin’ Johnson is the honorable fact that he went in there and impressively backed up all of his big talk, delivering on what he claimed that he would and could do. This says to me that Johnson intends to continue improving his craft, and we absolutely require big personality’s like Johnson to get in the mix within this sad division, a division that is being strangled with a rear naked choke courtesy of the ever boring Klitschko duo.

Regards,
K.M. Stansen