By Jason Kim: As we saw last Saturday night with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko struggling under the heavy pressure that was put on him by challenger Dereck Chisora in an eventual 12 round decision win for Vitali. The big Ukrainian won the fight, but he sure didn’t look good and was really gassed out by the end of the fight. The Klitschko brothers simply don’t handle pressure very well when they face a good pressure fighter that knows what he’s doing like Chisora. Now it’s IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) to prove how he himself handles pressure in the form of former cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s) in a bout that will be taking place in the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Like his older brother Vitali, Wladimir does well when he’s the one dictating the pace of the fight and is able to fight slow on the outside using his jab. Wladimir doesn’t do well when he’s facing unrelenting pressure and getting hit hard everyone in a while. The shots don’t necessarily need to be coming all that frequently for Wladimir to start stressing out and running all over the pace.

Arguably Mormeck has the power to KO Wladimir if he’s able to make contact with his shots often enough. However, Mormeck won’t be able to fight on the outside like he’s been doing because Wladimir’s jab is too good from the outside and will find it’s mark over and over again. Mormeck needs to find a way to get inside quick without getting hit cleanly. The good news is that Wladimir has terrible accuracy and can’t seem to hit a moving target anymore. The best we can see from Wladimir is for him to land some jabs but then find Mormeck inside on him. If Mormeck can make it to the inside with any consistency, then he’ll have a fairly decent chance of pulling off an upset because Wladimir can’t fight in close. Wladimir will try and clinch Mormeck but he’s still vulnerable to getting hit even when clinching.