HBO World Championship Boxing: 

Klitschko vs. Johnson

December 6, 2003

Madison Square Garden
New York, New York

It looks like December 6th is shaping up to be a fight fans paradise with no less then seven events

scheduled. Among the seven events is HBO's world championship boxing featuring the return of Vitali

Klitschko.

Klitschko's last fight was on June 21st of this year against heavyweight champion Lennon Lewis (41-2-1,

32 KO's). In that fight, Klischko suffered a terrible cut on his left eye which caused the bout to be stopped at

the end of the sixth round. He lost by 6th round TKO. He was leading on all three scorecards 58-56 at the

time of the stoppage. While wanting a rematch with Lewis, he'll have to settle for the WBO intercontinental

heavyweight champion Kirk Johnson.

Johnson's last fight was on March 15th of this year against Lou Savarese (43-5, 35 KO's) - Johnson won

by fourth round knock out. The thing to look out for with Johnson is that he has a tendency to throw low

blows. His only loss came against John Ruiz by way of disqualification for low blows. And the draw on his

record arguably should have been a win - in that fight against Alfred Cole (1998), he was penalized three

points for low blows. He later beat Cole by unanimous decision in a rematch in 1999. 

On the under card, Undefeated Joe Mesi goes up against Monte Barrett. Barrett is on a six fight win

streak since his last loss to Wladimir Klitschko back in 2000.

Heavyweight Bout - 12 Rds

Vitali Klitschko (32-2, 31 KO's) vs. Kirk Johnson (34-1-1, 25 KO's)

Heavyweight Bout - 12 Rds

Joe Mesi (27-0, 25 KO's) vs. Monte Barrett (29-2, 16 KO's)

Jr. Middleweight Bout

Yuri Foreman (12-0, 6 KO's) vs. TBA

(11/20/03)