By Sean McDaniel: 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) is getting a second shot against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s( when they meet up on July 7th at the Stade de Suisse, in Berne, Switzerland.

On paper, this fight shapes up to be a mismatch,because the 6’5″ southpaw Thompson lacks the power and speed to defeat Wladimir. Thompson did give Wladimir the toughest fight in many years four years ago before succumbing to the big 6’6″ Ukrainian’s power in the 11th round. Thompson has since improved and he now doesn’t have any injuries that will slow him down like in their last fight.

Thompson came into that fight with a bad right knee, which Wladimir took advantage of by putting all his weight on Thompson during his countless clinches.

Wladimir no doubt will attempt a similar strategy on July 7th, if only because it worked last time out. He’ll do his utmost to test Thompson’s wheels, and if they’re not up to snuff, Thompson will get taken out again.

Since Wladimir is likely to use clinching to wear Thompson down and smother his offense, Thompson is going to have to fight fire with fire by fighting rough. To beat Wladimir, Thompson may need to use tactics to defeat Wladimir’s clinching. Some of those tactics are by continuing to land shots while being held onto by Wladimir.

That’s something that very few of Wladimir’s opponents do and it hurts them because Wladimir has no qualms about clinching 8 to 10 times per round. Thompson can make the most of those clinches by continuing to land shots while being held.

We saw Samuel Peter landing some nice shots in his first fight against Wladimir while being held onto, and it worked well for him. Thompson doesn’t have the hand speed or power to beat Wladimir in a fight that takes place on the outside. He’s got to get rough with Wladimir while in close and take advantage of all the clinching that Wladimir does in the fight.