By Jason Kim: Next month, IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) will be fighting his hand-picked opponent 39-year-old Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s) in a fight at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. Wladimir, 35, is saying this is the best opponent he could find out of the top 20 list of contenders.

However, few boxing fans are buying that explanation and even fewer fans are interested in this stay busy fight. It’s a mismatch no matter how you look at it. Mormeck, a former WBA/WBC cruiserweight champion, is fighting out of his weight class and is giving up six inches in reach, 30 pounds in weight and at least seven inches, possibly more, in height.

Listed as 5’11”, Mormeck looks closer to 5’9” and no longer has the punching power he had at cruiserweight. Like Tomasz Adamek, a former IBF cruiserweight champion, Mormeck didn’t carry his power with him when he moved up in weight. Since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2009, Mormeck has struggled to beat three 2nd tier heavyweights in Vinny Maddalone, Fres Oquendo and Timur Ibragimov.

I saw all three fights and had the Maddalone fight a narrow win for Mormeck, and saw him losing to both Oquendo and Ibragimov. The only thing that Mormeck proved in those fights is that he’s hard to beat when he’s fighting in front of a home crowd in his home country of Paris, France. But he won’t have the same kind of luck against Wladimir, because this fight will be held in Germany and Mormeck probably won’t be around to see the finish unless he fights a strictly safety first fight.

Wladimir recently beat WBA heavyweight champion David Haye by a one-sided 12 round decision last July in one of Wladimir’s easier bouts. Haye, despite talking constant trash while hyping the fight, wanted no part of Wladimir on the night of the fight. It ended up being a very boring fight to watch because Haye didn’t come to win; he came to survive. Mormeck will have to fight in a similar way if he wants to finish on his feet.

I just wonder if Wladimir will decide to carry Mormeck into the later rounds so he doesn’t anger the German fans who will be paying big money to see him fight Mormeck. If Wladimir wipes Mormeck out too quick, there’s going to be some angry fans, who won’t be happy paying to see a mismatch. I just don’t know that Wladimir is the type to carry a fighter the way that his brother appeared to do in a couple of his fights during the past three years.