Klitschko vs. Tony Thompson – another mismatch for Wladimir

By Boxing News - 03/12/2012 - Comments

Image: Klitschko vs. Tony Thompson - another mismatch for WladimirBy Allan Fox: IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) will be facing his second consecutive 40-year-old opponent in Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) in his next fight in the summer in July or August. There isn’t a specific date yet for the fight but it’s going to happen and most likely in the summer barring any injuries from either fighter during training camp.

The real negative for this fight is Wladimir just fought a near 40-year-old fighter in his last bout against 39-year-old Jean Marco Mormeck in Wladimir’s 4th round TKO win on March 3rd, and now he’s following that up with a fight against his mandatory challenger Thompson.

The fight is unavoidable for Wladimir if he wants to hold onto his IBF title, but you’d have liked to have seen Wladimir face a good opponent in his last fight and then use this fight as the one against an old guy. But fighting guys that are in the 40-year-old range over and over again is dull because these aren’t competitive fights for Wladimir and he needs better opposition.

The disappointing aspect about the Wladimir-Thompson fight is Wladimir already stopped Thompson in the 11th round in July 2008 in a one-sided fight, and here Thompson is about to get another shot at a title four years later after having beaten five second tier heavyweights. The sanctioning bodies need to get better about making sure that the top contenders that they have ranked at least have beaten other top contenders before being ranked in the top five. Otherwise what you get is fighters taking the backdoor to title shots by fighting B and C level fighters to get ranked highly and then getting wiped out when they face one of the champions. Wladimir can arguably do a lot better than Thompson by facing guys like Denis Boytsov, Tyson Fury, David Price, Chris Arreola, Dereck Chisora or Robert Helenius.



Comments are closed.