By William Mackay: After a two knockdown fourth round TKO win over the smaller 5’11” Jean Marc Mormeck (36-5, 22 KO’s) last Saturday night, IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) warned other smaller fighters about what they’re up against if they move up in weight to the heavyweight division and attempt to challenge for a title.

The 6’6″ 244 pound Wladimir told AFP “I think all the light heavyweights who have ambitions to get into the heavyweight division should think twice.”

Mormeck didn’t come from the light heavyweight division, he came from the cruiserweight division. Wladimir must have him mixed up with his brother’s recent opponent Tomasz Adamek, who at one time fought at light heavyweight and was one of the best fighters in the world at that weight before moving up to cruiserweight and then heavyweight. But Mormeck was always a cruiserweight, and he had only moved up in weight in the past couple of years. He hadn’t looked good in the three fights against 2nd tier opposition. It’s Wladimir’s fault for picking him out.

He could have fought a bigger fighter that was performing better than Mormeck but still chose for a smaller guy that wasn’t impressing at this weight. So instead warning smaller fighters about about avoiding moving up in weight, Wladimir shouldn’t be rewarding their decisions to move up in weight by giving them undeserving title shots. Had Wladimir looked at Mormeck’s three fights at heavyweight, he would have noted that he was really, really struggling to beat guys that Wladimir would mop up in a few rounds. Who’s fault is it that Wladimir picked a small guy instead of a bigger fighter? It’s his own, so he needs to next time look at them and if they’re teeny fighters and struggling at this weight like Mormeck, then he needs to ignore them even if the sanctioning bodies give them fairly decent rankings. As long as they’re not Wladimir’s mandatory challenger, then he doesn’t fight them. Otherwise, there will be flood of smaller fighters coming up from cruiserweight and light heavyweight in hopes that Wladimir will pick them out too for a payday fight.

Wladimir continued “I think Jean Marc was surprised by the strength, speed and balance of my boxing right off the bat…It was difficult for him to restart after the first shot that I landed on him in the 2nd round.”

Wladimir hurt Mormeck with a series of right hands in the 2nd and put him down with a big right hand. However, I don’t think that was the factor in Mormeck not getting his offense going. He ALREADY, wasn’t doing anything well before that and big part of it was Wladimir’s habit of clinching constantly without getting points taken off. Additionally, Wladimir was allowed to hold his left hand far out in front of him to keep Mormeck from getting close. He was able to push with the left and sometimes position it on top of Mormeck’s head without being warned. Referees usually stop the action when you have a fighter doing that and warn them to keep their arms closer to them. A fighter can’t hold his arms out to push off on his shorter opponents and the referee should have stopped Wladimir from doing this, as well as all the clinching Wladimir did.