Vitali Klitschko produced a good performance to easily defend his WBC heavyweight title against Kevin Johnson.

Johnson put up plenty of resistance but never offered a significant challenge to the 38-year-old Ukrainian, who claimed a unanimous points victory. Two judges scored the fight 120-108 and the other 119-109.

Johnson never found a way to deal with Klitschko's size, being forced onto the back foot from the very first round.

Klitschko's long arms pushed Johnson onto the ropes as the Ukrainian three-time champion dictated the pace of the fight through the opening rounds.

The American was struggling to find any rhythm but even on the backfoot, the talkative American never stopped taunting the champion.

A couple of jabs from Johnson in the fourth round finally began to trouble Klitschko, but the Ukrainian still held the upper hand as Johnson remained defensive.

Klitschko got more aggressive in the seventh round as his frustration at Johnson's resistance grew.

But Johnson seemed to know the game was up going into the ninth round, simply trying to hang on and avoid a knockout rather than fight back.

He did that much, but heads back across the Atlantic without the title he had promised.