Klitschko-Mormeck: Jean-Marc needs to up his game if he doesn’t want to get blown out

By Boxing News - 10/05/2011 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has picked a smaller, older heavyweight to defend his titles against on December 10th in choosing 39-year-old former cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck. Listed at 5’11”, but likely closer to 5’9”, Mormeck is really much too small to be fighting at heavyweight.

You can see this in the way that Mormeck has struggled in his three fights at the heavyweight level. Mormeck had had to battle hard just to beat 2nd tier heavyweights and getting wins that are very controversial in his home city of Paris, France.

On December 10th, Mormeck won’t be fighting at home in France against Wladimir and he’s going to have to figure out a way to win this fight, because the way that Mormeck has looked in his three previous fights at heavyweight he doesn’t appear to have a chance in this fight.

At one time, Mormeck was a really good cruiserweight, beating the guys like O’Neil Bell. However, Mormeck has done little since being stopped by David Haye in 2007. He abandoned the cruiserweight division altogether after that fight and it was an usual move given that he was one of the top three fighters at that weight during that time.

Mormeck will have to use a lot of head movement to avoid Wladimir’s jabs, left hook and right hands if he wants to win. Mormeck has to get inside on Wladimir some way in order to land his big shots. That means Mormeck will have to duck under Wladimir’s jabs and quickly land in close before Wladimir is able to grab him in a clinch. It won’t be easy because Wladimir likes to back away when his shorter opponents try to rush or crowd him. Mormeck will have to be a lot quicker on his feet than he’s looked in fights against Fres Oquendo and Timur Ibragimov recently. Mormeck looked slow and old in both of those fights, just plodding forward like a guy that’s lost his wheels.



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