By Jim Dower: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) will be facing 39-year-old Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 Ko’s) this Saturday night in one of Wladimir’s least interesting title defenses in many, many years at the ESPRIT arena, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

The fight has little appeal outside of Germany where Wladimir is practically a king. The reason it has little appeal is because of how poorly Mormeck has looked since he moved ip to the heavyweight division in 2009. Although he’s won all three fights at the heavyweight level against 2nd tier level competition, Mormeck hasn’t impressed in any of the fights, and you can make a strong argument that he deserved to win none of them.

They all took place in his home country of France, and Mormeck got outworked in each of them. It’s good for him that he got the wins, but bad for him because he’s probably going to get destroyed on Saturday because he’s not fighting at a high enough level to be competitive against the 35-year-old 6’6″ Wladimir, let alone beat him. This should go 3 to 5 rounds before Wladimir knocks him out. If he plays it safe, he could string it out a lot longer in the process of jabbing Mormeck’s face into an unrecognizable mass of tissue. It would be better for Mormeck if he were to get taken out quicker because he can safe himself a lot of needless punishment.

Mormeck is listed at 5’11”, but looks closer to 5’9″ and it’s going to be unreal seeing him trying to land shots against the 6’6″ Wladimir. I don’t know that he’ll be able to land anything unless Mormeck makes mad rushes at Wladimir with his head down while swinging his arms in the process. Mormeck can’t reach Wladimir because he’s giving up over six inches in reach and that’s going to make it tough for Mormeck to get anything going.