By Allan Fox: For weeks now, IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has been one of Jean Marc Mormeck’s biggest supporters, raining compliments down upon his head constantly, describing him as “Dangerous” and similar to Mike Tyson with his style of fighting. After all that praise, little of it has stuck with the boxing public unfortunately for Wladimir, as they still see this fight as a huge mismatch. But it does sort of put Mormeck in a situation where there is some pressure on him now to try and live up to all the compliments that Wladimir has poured over his head.

Mormeck doesn’t have hand speed or power like Tyson, so it’s going to be a problem for him right off the bat. He’s already got a big strike against him due to his limited size at the heavyweight level. Mormeck is only 5’11” 216 pounds and will be facing the much larger 6’6′ 244 pound Wladimir tonight. Historically, the bigger fighter hasn’t always won. Indeed, there has been countless fights where the bigger guy was blasted apart by the smaller guy; one example being the 6’6 1/2″ Jess Willard losing by a 6’1″ Jack Dempsey in 3rd round TKO in 1919. However, that was a fight between a real slugger in his prime in Dempsey and a guy that was clearly out of his depth in the tall slender Willard. Mormeck doesn’t have the Dempsey type of power at heavyweight, and so it’s going to be a lot tougher for him to achieve great results in this fight.

What Mormeck does have is speed and a center of gravity. He’s got a quick first move and he can duck under a jab surprisingly well. He also punches hard at a short distance due to his short arms and is able to get a lot of leverage on his shots. What Mormeck needs to do is to stay low, move fast and get in close to land his shots and try to stay there. Wladimir can’t punch at all in close and mostly jabs grabs his opponents and leans on them until the referee pulls them apart. Mormeck has to keep working and not play nice when he gets grabbed. He has to hit Wladimir in the head and the body in close because that’s his best chance of winning. Once the referee gives them separation, it allows Wladimir do throw his shots and that’s not good for Mormeck if he’s going to live up to the big expectations that Wladimir has set for him.