By Eric Thomas: Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s) is giving himself a good chance of defeating heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) tonight and taking his IBF/WBA/WBO titles in their fight in front of 50,000 fans at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. Mormeck would probably be the last one that you would pick out to defeat a fighter like Wladimir, but Mormeck has a chance because he’s good power and Wladimir is very susceptible to getting hurt when hit hard. Mormeck has a punchers’ chance of winning this fight if he can land his big shots.

Mormeck told the dailymail.co.uk “Wladimir has a glass chin which I will break. He cannot stand punches. Against his brother I would have thought longer about fighting him, but against Wladimir I believe I have very good chances.”

Mormeck isn’t giving Wladimir a lot of respect for having held down at least one title for the past six years. It’s a big accomplishment but not so big when you look at the mostly mediocre opposition that Wladimir has faced during that time. Mormeck stands out among those fighters because he’s got slightly better power and a much more elusive style due to his bob and weave head movement that he likes to use. It makes him hard to hit with power shots. He can be hit with a jab but not with any consistency. Wladimir will almost surely have to take power of his shots in order to land and his accuracy, never good to begin with, will really suffer in this fight. Mormeck will have a much easier time landing his punches compared to Wladimir because he’ll have such a huge target to aim at.

Wladimir doesn’t use head movement and his defense is mostly his running around the ring and his habit of holding his left hand way out in front of him. Mormeck can duck under Wladimir’s outstretched hand and once in close he can take advantage of that by hitting Wladimir with powerful shots. What Mormeck can’t do is to stop throwing punches when Wladimir tries to clinch him, which he’ll likely do with great frequency tonight in order to try and smother Mormeck’s offense. The referee will likely allow Wladimir to clinch without taking points off, so it’s going to be up to Mormeck to make Wladimir pay each time he grabs him.