Wladimir: I’m going to take a chance to KO Mormeck

By Boxing News - 02/28/2012 - Comments

Image: Wladimir: I'm going to take a chance to KO Mormeck(Photo credit: Michael Eaton Sterling/KMG) By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) will be taking some chances this Saturday night to try and get a stoppage win over #9 IBF, #10 WBA, #10 WBO, 39-year-old Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s) at the ESPRIT arena, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

It’s almost as if Wladimir is looking to make a point in this fight to win impressively, perhaps to get back some respect from boxing fans after turning the other cheek when British heavyweight Dereck Chisora spit in his face and slapped his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko this month.

Wladimir told RingTV “Mormeck is one of the most experienced fighters I have ever faced. He has had many world title fights, had very good technique, can take a punch and is very intelligent inside the ring. I will take any chance to knock him out.”

What Wladimir doesn’t say is all those fights took place at cruiserweight against fighters that weighted 40+ pounds less than Wladimir. Going from cruiserweight to heavyweight and still find success is extremely difficult and is usually only accomplished by cruisereights in the 6’2″ range and a lot younger than the nearly 40 Mormeck. He’s at best 5’10” in his stocking feet and that’s going to put him at a tremendous disadvantage in this fight no matter how much experience Mormeck had as a cruiserweight. He has had some important fights against the likes of O’Neil Bell, Wayne Braithwaite, Virgil Hill, Alexander Gurov and David Haye. However, Mormeck lost to Haye and O’Neil, and those guys were a lot smaller than Wladimir and Mormeck was a lot younger back then.

I don’t know if Wladimir can accomplish a whole lot in beating Mormeck and make any kind of tough guy statement with the victory, because some boxing fans now see Wladimir as weak due to the way he let Chisora spit in his face and the way Wladimir made a funny face and tasted the water that Chisora spit in his face. It’s going to probably take a lot more for Wladimir to live down that moment. He’s going to have to turn really mean for a long time to get fans to forget about that. The best thing would be for Wladimir to face Chisora and knock him out to get even, but that’s not going to happen. Wladimir is already saying he’s going to face 40-year-old Tony Thompson next; his #1 IBF mandatory challenger.



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