By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) has a big mismatch on July 7th against 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) at the Stade de Suisse in Berne, Switzerland.

This is a mismatch, but just another one of many for the 36-year-old Wladimir, because all of his fights have been mismatches since 2004.

This was an unavoidable mismatch because Wladimir has little choice but to face Thompson because he was made his mandatory challenger after beating five 2nd tier heavyweights to earn the shot. It’s pretty easy to earn a title shot nowadays because many of the fighters that become mandatory challengers never even bother to face a 1st tier quality fighter and instead take the back down way to a title shots. This leads unfortunately to mismatches left and right.

It’s not a good sigh that Wladimir has already knocked Thompson out in the past in 2008. It was a somewhat close fight in that Wladimir got hit occasionally by left hands and right hooks from the 6’5″ Thompson. However, Thompson lacked the power to trouble the Ukrainian. As such, Thompson ended up taking horrible mostly one-sided punishment until finally getting taken out in the 11th.

This time it’ll be a lot easier for Wladimir because he clinches after almost every punch and he’s become quite effective in shutting down his opponent’s offense, even when they’re not even a threat to him. For instance, Wladimir’s last opponent, 39-year-old Jean Marc Mormeck, had no power whatsoever, but that didn’t stop Wladimir from constantly clinching him as if he had a ton of power.

Wladimir will probably use mostly his right hand to take care of Thompson in this fight, because he probably won’t be able to land his jabs nor his left hook. Thompson is good at blocking those shots, but not nearly as good at stopping Wladimir’s right hands.