By Jim Dower: 41-year-old heavyweight contender Kali Meehan (38-4, 31 KO’s) will be defending his IBF Pan Pacific heavyweight title against the hard hitting Travis “Freight Train” Walker (38-7-1, 30 KO’s) in a battle of huge heavyweights on March 7th at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

The 6’6″ Meehan is coming off of a 1st round TKO win over Michael Kirby last June. Before that, he stopped Valeri Semiskur in the 2nd round last April.

The fight will be 12 rounds and Meehan could have problems with Walker’s power in the early rounds. In the past, Meehan has had trouble with big punchers. He was stopped by Danny Williams in the 1st round in June 2001 and Hasim Rahman TKO 4 in November 2004. Meehan’s opposition has been less than impressive since the Rahman loss eight years ago.

The best opponent that Meehan has fought since then was DaVarryl Williamson, who Meehan stopped in the 6th round in June 2007. It’s unclear Meehan hasn’t faced better opposition since the Rahman loss because he likely would have gotten another title shot. Meehan was beaten by World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster by a 12 round split decision in September 2004 in an exciting fight.

Walker, 6’4 1/2″, took a pounding in his last fight against contender Kubrat Pulev, losing by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last October. Walker, 32, fought well in the early rounds, landing some big bombs on Pulev’s chin but he was unable to hurt the ex-2008 super heavyweight Olympian for Bulgaria and ended up taking a beating. Other than that fight, Walker had a good 2011, beating Darnell Wilson, Alonzo Butler, Gabe Brown and Stacy Frazier. Walker has losses against Ruslan Chagaev, Alex Leapai, Chris Arreola, Manuel Quezada, Johnathon Banks and TJ Wilson. He does well against non-punchers but has problems when he faces guys that can get to his fragile chin.