BOXING Evasive Lewis forces Klitschko to face Johnson

Kirk Johnson seems to have had some bad breaks in the last several months.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Two months ago, Vitali Klitschko visited Lennox Lewis in London, inquiring about the heavyweight champion's plans and the prospects for a rematch.
The answers he got were not exactly acceptable.
"He said, 'I don't know. Maybe I'm retired. Maybe I'll fight again. Maybe I won't,' " Klitschko said.
And that's why Klitschko agreed to a 12-round match against Kirk Johnson at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 6.
"I want to be active," he said Tuesday. "Lewis doesn't know what he's doing in the future. I'm ready to fight."
Promoters hope to get the Johnson-Klitschko bout sanctioned as a heavyweight eliminator with the winner guaranteed a shot at Lewis and his WBC title. That's, of course, if Lewis decides to fight again.
Ukrainian was ahead
Klitschko wants another shot after he was stopped on cuts by Lewis on June 21. He was ahead on all three cards when the fight was halted, and he remains bitter about the ending.
"I was very disappointed," he said. "Why did the doctor stop it? Nobody checked me between rounds or asked me if I could continue. I don't remember them looking at me. A fighter would remember that. Nobody in my corner remembers that.
"I understand the doctor was worried about my health. But I could see everything."
There is a thin scar under Klitschko's left eye, another next to it, souvenirs of the cuts Lewis inflicted, where enough blood flowed for the fight to be stopped.
Klitschko wasn't even supposed to be fighting Lewis that night. The challenger was supposed to be Johnson, but two weeks before the fight, he had to pull out when he tore a chest muscle in training.
"I was in great shape when I got injured," he said. "I knew it right away when it happened. I know what it feels like. I hoped it was just a sprain but I knew after the MRI."
Doctors ordered him to shut down and when he stepped aside, Klitschko was the replacement. What Johnson didn't like was Lewis' reaction to his injury.
"He talked a lot of garbage after I got hurt," Johnson said. "I think he was relieved. It was surprising that he did that."
For Johnson, the injury was the second speed bump in his ambition to win the heavyweight title. In July 2002, he fought then-WBA champion John Ruiz but was disqualified in the 10th round because of low blows.
Still steamed
That is the only loss on his record and it still angers him.
"They weren't low blows," he said. "How do you get disqualified for hip shots?"
Then Johnson waved his hand, as if he were brushing aside the bad memory. "I'm past all that right now," he said.
Quick knockouts of Jeremy Bates in December and Lou Savavese in March put him in position for the Klitschko fight.
"People thought I was finished," he said. "Yet here I am, back again. I was cheated. Now I have a chance again to show my skills."
Johnson comes into the fight at 34-1-1. Klitschko is 32-2. In the 10-round co-feature, Joe Mesi (27-0) faces Monte Barrett (29-2). One of Barrett's losses was to Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali's brother.
The card will be televised live by HBO.