Kubrat Pulev runs through Kevin Johnson to maintain mandatory position

IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev won as expected yesterday, all-but-sweeping Kevin Johnson in the former’s native Bulgaria. He now stands to face the winner of today’s showdown between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, assuming no further rematch shenanigans.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be all that newsworthy. It was a run-of-the-mill tuneup fight, around the same level as Pulev’s joke of a bout with Sam Peter last year. I wrote an article anyway for a very simple reason:

This was a $19.99 pay-per-view.

Kevin Johnson is 2-7 since beating Albert Sosnowski in a Prizefighter semifinal in 2012 and this is due in large part to the fact that he’s a fighter who barely fights. He’s literally not even worth watching in a mismatch because he’s tough enough to survive non-Joshua punches and has zero interest in offering any of his own.

Then again, I am not an economist and am currently sober, so maybe I’m just not looking at this from the right perspective.