By Alexey Sukachev
Copper Box Arena, London - Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13KOs) had little trouble in outworking Kevin Johnson (29-5-1, 14KOs) to retain the WBO & WBA International heavyweight titles with a twelve round unanimous decision. The scores were 118-109, 118-110 and 118-109.
The British fighter started to hunt Johnson down immediately after the opening bell. He was fast and furious but not as skillful as "early" Kingpin, who took the first solely on his jab and upper body movement. Chisora got bigger (and better) in the second round, mixing constant pressure with damaging mauling bombs - not all of them conventional, and not all of them being even remotely legal. Still a very solid round two for Chisora. Johnson started to fire a bit more in the third and used his jab (as well as stinging body punches) to get the better of the Brit in the fourth.
The whole scenario was upset by Chisora in the fifth when one of his right hands landed squarely on Johnson's temple forcing him to go down - probably for the first time in his career. He got up and continued fighting... and complaining to the referee for dirty tricks of Chisora, some of them being clearly visible.
Chisora continued to dominate in rounds six through eighth, while Johnson was solely defensive-oriented and wasn't active at all. Finally, in the ninth the American import began to dig dipper into his resources and found some much needed extra energy to land several good counters, one of them wobbling Chisora instantly. It was just a moment though, as Del Boy managed to extend his superiority and his domination to the next three rounds. Johnson tried to imitate something dangerous in the twelfth and final round but Chisora ultimately took it too, being more charged and simply more willing to win this night.
After the fight, Chisora called for a fight with Alexander Povetkin and went as far as to suggest to beat the Russian fighter in Moscow, at his backyard.
