Johnson Pulls out of fight with Lewis!

By Kent Appel

07.06 - The anticipated match up between heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and challenger Kirk Johnson is definitely off, possibly postponed until another date, due to an injury substained during training by Johnson.

I spoke with Fred Sternburg of Lion Promotions, one of the promoters of the event, by telephone and he confirmed that Johnson had suffered a torn left pectoral muscle and that Johnson would not be fighting as scheduled this coming June 21.

There is no news as yet on a replacement opponent for Lewis but it appears the card will go on as scheduled. There have been rumors floating around about Vitali Klitschko, who was scheduled to meet Cedric Boswell on the undercard of the Lewis/Johnson card, stepping in as Lewis' opponent and I have also heard some talk about Chris Byrd being in good shape and ready to fight. But there has been no confirmation of these being anything but rumors.

I represented Eastside Boxing this past Wednesday in a nationwide teleconference with Kirk Johnson and Johnson appeared confident of a victory over Lewis. So much so that Johnson said Lewis would be one of his easiest fights.

Johnson seemed somewhat irritated with the press, I could hear it in his voice. His attitude seemed to be that he wasn't given the respect that he is due. I haven't seen reports where anyone has trashed him but most people were picking Lewis to defeat him, myself included. It wasn't so much that people are negative about Johnson, it is because people have a high opinion of Lewis' skills as he is one of the best heavyweights to come along in this generation.

But even if I had picked Lewis to win, I thought it was going to be one of the champion's toughest fights because I felt Johnson was going to take the fight to Lewis and Lewis would have to rely on all of his skills to pull out a victory. I also felt that there was a fair chance of one of Johnson's bombs landing solidly on Lewis's chin, a chin that has let him down on a couple of other occasions, his knockout losses to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman. The fight could have possibly ended in a knockout victory for Johnson. Added in to this mix is the fact that Lennox Lewis has not fought in a year and a year's layoff can be a long time, especially for an older fighter. Sometimes a fighter can look great for one fight, in this case Lewis' convincing victory over Mike Tyson last year, and than suddenly he can seem to age overnight in his next fight.

In any case, I hope that the Lennox Lewis verses Kirk Johnson fight does take place at some point. I am disappointed it is not taking place as scheduled as it is an intriguing match up.