By Andrey Krikunov
Kevin Johnson, the December 12 opponent for the WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, has only one blemish on his record out of the 23 bouts in his professional career. Back in 2004 he had a draw with Timur Ibragimov in the 4-round fight. Now the Uzbek boxer shared his opinion with Blik newspaper on the upcoming Klitschko-Johnson showdown.
“Johnson was running away from me like a hare in all of the four rounds of that bout, - Ibragimov recalls. - "I was really surprised when after the fight the scorecards of all judges showed 38:38. To tell you the truth, the victory was blatantly stolen from me. Just imagine that on top of that after the bout Johnson's promoter came to me and tried to console me."
Timur doesn’t believe that Johnson stands any chance against Klitschko. Although he admits that the American has become more experienced over the past years.
“There’s only one way to beat the Klitschko brothers – to come as close as possible and to punch them straight to the chin, - says Ibragimov. - "If you fight Wladimir and Vitali at the mid-range, it’s impossible to beat them. They both have very long hands – they would hit their opponents, while the latter just can’t reach them. Johnson has to go forward all the time in the fight with Vitali, he has to keep up the tempo. Chris Arreola tried to fight that way but he was too straight-forward. But what can Johnson do? If he ran from me, what will he do against Vitali who is much more powerful and heavier than me? I don’t know the answer to that question."
