MAKINGS OF A CHAMPION.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES

BOXING

Joe DeGuardia looks for talent, as well as personality, when he signs a fighter to his Star Boxing promotional company. He believes he has found the perfect combination in heavyweight prospect Kevin Johnson.

Johnson, 27, will be the first one to tell everyone how good he is. A smooth talker, to be sure. He's also a man who will tell you how much he loves his 8-year-old daughter Fatima, who he is raising by himself because Fatima's mother died a few years ago.

In other words, DeGuardia believes Johnson has both the physical and mental goods to become America's next heavyweight champion of the world. Johnson, 15-0-1 with six knockouts, will be on display next Friday when he takes on Damian "Bolo" Wills (22-1-1, 16 KOs) of Hollywood in the main event in Doraville, Ga. Showtime will televise as part of its ShoBox series featuring up-and-comers.

"He has a phenomenal jab, probably one of the quickest jabs I've seen since the (Larry) Holmes days," DeGuardia said of the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Johnson. "I like the person that he is outside the ring. I look at the ring skills and I also look at their marketability.

"He is one of the guys out there who has the character and the persona to go out there and capture the attention of the American public. He has almost got that (Muhammad) Ali-type persona."

Johnson, who grew up in New Jersey but today resides in Georgia, is not shy. That's for sure.

"A lot of people say that I have one of the best personalities, and that's what makes me such a good fighter," he said. "A personality of being marketable also makes you a better fighter. It separates you from the average fighter. I'm a people person. I'm a single father raising my daughter to be the best woman in the world she could be.

"When I finish with boxing, I'm getting ready to go to school for nursing. That's my thing. I love people."

He loves boxing, too, and wants to get to the promised land as quickly as possible.

DeGuardia said that when he asks Johnson to give him a list of people he doesn't want to fight yet, it's returned blank.

In his fourth fight, Johnson took on Timor Ibragimov, who was 13-0, and fought him to a draw. In his sixth fight, Johnson easily defeated Robert Wiggins, who was 19-3-1.

In his 10th fight, Johnson won a lopsided decision over Robert Hawkins, who was 21-5.

"He has beat guys who most guys wouldn't think of fighting in their first 10 fights," DeGuardia said. "One of my jobs has been to try and hold him back."

Nothing doing, Johnson said. In his mind, he is talented enough to take on and beat the best right now. He refers to himself as a serious heavyweight, one who wants to restore some respectability to the American heavyweight scene.

"I would say I have the fastest hands in the boxing industry, fastest hands with the fastest jab," Johnson said. "Look, the biggest problem in boxing nowadays is, it seems as though a lot of guys who used to walk the streets, a lot of ex-football players, a lot of basketball players, somebody walks up to them and says, 'Hey, you're a big guy, maybe you should be a heavyweight boxer.'

"And now they are in the heavyweight division, messing up the boxing game, messing up the industry. A lot of people don't even like watching heavyweight boxing no more because a lot of fighters came in trying to do a boxer's job. My job is to get all these fighters out of my division, clean up all the bums in my division and bring the championship back to America."

Johnson grew up in a household that he referred to as well-grounded. It wasn't one with money to burn, but he said his mother always made sure there was food on the table. It wasn't an easy road, and now Johnson is being put to the bigger test of trying to mold his daughter into a special lady. But Johnson believes that everything he has dealt with has just added muscle to his emotional constitution.

"Some of the most successful people were people that didn't have at first," he said.

"Your hunger, and just to strive to achieve success comes from your inner push. And a lot of people don't have a lot of inner push. Me, I have so much inner push because of everything I've been through.

"You gotta learn how to take some of the bad and use it as energy now to go on and be a little more successful. And that's how I choose to do because I'm not living just for me. I have my daughter to live for, I have a family I would like to see happy."

As it stands, all four heavyweight belts are held by Eastern bloc fighters. DeGuardia believes Johnson will change that.

"I believe in Kevin and I believe Kevin is a future world champion," he said. "Beyond a world champion, I believe he is somebody who can captivate the public again. I think he is somebody that really could be that American everybody looks at and says, 'Yes, we have a world champion."'

A lot at stake for lightweights

Erik Morales is one of the more popular fighters in recent times.

David Diaz is a fighter few outside of Chicago know a lot about.

Morales will be trying to become the first Mexican national to win world titles in four weight classes when he squares off with Diaz next Saturday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago.

Diaz will be attempting to make the first defense of the World Boxing Council lightweight title he did not even have to win in the ring. He won the interim belt with a 10th-round technical knockout of Jose Santa Cruz last August, a fight he was losing on all scorecards. Then the permanent belt was handed to Diaz when Joel Casamayor was stripped because he refused to defend his belt against him.

But Diaz does have a lot going for him and has more than a good shot to win. One, he's a southpaw. Two, whereas he began his career at super lightweight, Morales began his at super bantamweight, meaning Diaz is more natural at this weight.

Diaz (32-1-1, 17 KOs) also seems to have the perfect psyche going for him. The fight on HBO pay-per-view is billed as "The War for 4." As in, this is Morales' chance to make Mexican history in Diaz's hometown.

Diaz said he couldn't care less.

"No, I mean, that's motivation, man," said Diaz, when asked if he felt disrespected as champion.

Bob Arum promotes both fighters.

"I find something that lights the fire under me, and that's just what they did.

"They can call it Erik's Fight, or whatever they want to call it. It's just that I know I am going to go in there and give them my all. Not leaving nothing to chance."

Morales (48-5, 34 KOs) has lost three consecutive and four of five. At 30, he is a year younger than Diaz, but because of all of the brutal fights he's been in, Morales is the older fighter.

If he loses convincingly, Arum told this newspaper Morales will almost certainly retire.

All of which means that Diaz will probably use the same route he used in his comeback win against Santa Cruz -- kill the body and the head will fall.

Santa Cruz, of Lincoln Heights, had leads of three, five and five points on Diaz when he was stopped.

"In that particular fight, what everybody seems to forget and not look at was that we laid the groundwork first to go to the body," Diaz said.

"We were going to sacrifice a couple of rounds here and there. But it all planned out perfectly. We ended up winning in dramatic fashion."

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WBC lightweight champion David Diaz, right, will put his title on the line when he faces former super featherweight champion Erik Morales, left, on Aug. 4 in Chicago.

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