Video: Aleksandar Ilic wins by question mark kick KO vs. Damian Janikowski at KSW 47

By Jeff Aranow

Boxingnews24.com

Undefeated heavyweight prospect Nathan Gorman (16-0, 11 KOs) defeated former world title challenger/replacement opponent Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson (34-13-1, 18 KOs) by a listless 10 round points decision on Saturday night at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England.

The referee Ian John Lewis scored it 100-90, which is the exact same score that Boxing News 24 scored it.

The fight looked more like a sparring session than an actual bout. The boxing fans at ringside started booing the slow, lethargic way the two fighters were competing by the ninth. They continued to boo sporadically until the end. The fans obviously weren’t happy.

The 39-year-old Johnson looked like he was just trying to survive rather than win the fight. He rarely threw any punches in the fight, and mostly just used his shoulder roll to pick off the plodding Gorman’s slow, and telegraphed punches. Johnson fought reasonably well in the first two rounds, but he seemed to tire by the third round.

The remainder of the fight, Johnson just focused on his defensive to make Gorman miss with his punches. Johnson fought well on defense, but he failed to let his hands go on offense. Due to his age, Johnson’s once fast hand speed has deteriorated to the point where he’s very slow, and easy to counter when he throws shots. That’s one of the reasons why Johnson wasn’t throwing a lot tonight.

When he would throw, Gorman would counter him with left hooks and right hands. By the end of the fight, Johnson had swelling around both eyes from the many shots that he took from Gorman. Although Johnson picked off a lot of Gorman’s punches, many of them still got through and connected cleanly. Those are the ones that caused the swelling around Johnson’s eyes. Gorman was at his best in the fourth and fifth. He seemed to slow down in the second half of the fight. One reason for that is Johnson wasn’t doing anything, and it too easy for Gorman.

This wasn’t the greatest performance by Gorman, who was forced to go the distance in his third consecutive fight Knocking out a guy like Johnson isn’t easy, but it’s still possible. After the way Gorman fought, it’s unlikely that he’ll do well when he faces Daniel Dubois in the future. Gorman is just too slow. Dubois, and almost any other heavyweight in the top 15, would easily take advantage of Gorman’s slow, plodding style of fighting, and work him over.

Kevin Johnson looked like a mere shadow of the fighter he once was when he unsuccessfully challenged former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2009. Johnson didn’t look good back then, but he had a nice jab and fairly fast hands at the time. Tonight, Johnson rarely threw his jab, and he looked slow. The fact that Gorman couldn’t knock Johnson out is an indication of how average he is.

Sam Maxwell vs. Sabri Sediri – RESULTS

In a thrilling fight, undefeated light welterweight Sam Maxwell (11-0, 9 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Sabri Sediri (10-1-1, 5 KOs) by a 10th round knockout. Maxwell caught Sediri with a big right hand in the 10th round to put him down. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:46 of round 10. Maxwell knocked Sediri down earlier in the fight in the first and second rounds.

Sam Bowen vs. Jordan McCorry – RESULTS

In his first defense, British super featherweight champion Sam Bowen (15-0, 11 KOs) defeated Jordan McCorry (17-5-1, 4 KOs) by a ninth round knockout in the headliner fight. Bowen caught McCorry with some big shots in the ninth. Bowen then unloaded on McCorry until the referee Steve Gray was forced to step in and stop the contest at 0:33 of round nine.

Bowen, 26, had his way with McCorry the entire fight, hurting him in round six, and continuing to blast away at him in the seventh and eighth rounds. McCorry had point deductions for throwing low blows in rounds six and seven.

Overall, it was a good victory for Bowen in beating a guy that wasn’t on his level in 28-year-old ‘Jordy’ McCorry.

In other action on the card, junior middleweight CJ Challenger (10-0, 2 KOs) defeated Kyle Haywood (8-1-1, 1 KOs) by a 10 round decision. The score was 97-95.