Christopher JOHNSON

Jamaican-born Chris Johnson moved to Kitchener, Ontario at the age of eight and first made his name in the boxing world at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, where he won the middleweight title by defeating Joseph Laryea of Ghana. His successful 1991 season included a silver medal at the Pan American Games, a bronze medal at the World Championships, and selection to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics. At the Games he received a bye in the first round and defeated Mohamed Siluvangi of Zaire in the second. He overcame Stefan Trendafilov of Bulgaria in the quarterfinals before being stopped by Chris Byrd of the United States, the eventual silver medalist, and settling for bronze. He turned professional the following year and won his first 18 bouts, being handed his first loss by Britain’s Herol Graham in the fight for the WBC Super Middleweight Title. Aside from one draw, he won his next nine bouts, capturing both the WBF and NABF Lightweight Heavy titles in the process, before losing the latter to Reggie Johnson of the United States. His next fight, against American Antonio Tarver, a 1996 Olympic light-heavyweight bronze medalist, nearly ended in disaster. After receiving serious injuries in his ten-round spar with Tarver, Johnson was knocked out and had to be carried out of the ring on a stretcher, suffering from a subdural hematoma (brain bleed). He pledged to leave active competition if he survived and thus departed from the professional circuit and took up training. In 2005 he founded Chris Johnson’s Fighting Alliance in Mississauga, Ontario, now known as Clancy’s Boxing Academy, where his students have included former IBF Junior Featherweight champion Steve Molitor and two-time Olympic boxer Andrew Kooner.