Tony Thompson next for Wladimir Klitschko?

By Boxing News - 03/05/2012 - Comments

Image: Tony Thompson next for Wladimir Klitschko?By John F. McKenna (McJack): Predictably (Super) WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO and The Ring heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) is still taking a considerable amount of flak coming off of his easy 4th round KO over former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck (36-5, 22 KO’s).

Wladimir knew going into his fight with the 39 year old Mormeck that he was in a no win position and that no matter how the fight ended he was going to be criticized. “Dr. Steelhammer” fought Jean-Marc in a stay busy fight when it became clear that none of the leading contenders in the heavyweight division wanted to fight him including Chris Arreola, WBA champion Alexander Povetkin, Robert Helenius and Tyson Fury.

It is more than likely at this juncture that Wladimir will again have to take on a contender that he really does not want to fight. 40 year old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) became the IBF mandatory challenger for Klitschko when Philadelphia’s “Fast” Eddie Chambers backed out of an elimination fight with him last October.

Thompson was KO’d by Wladimir in the 11th round back in July 2008. Since then Tony has won five fights in a row, but those wins were against 2nd tier opposition. So in essence Wladimir’s defense against Thompson will in all probability not be a competitive fight. Klitschko’s mandatory defense against Thompson will most likely take place this summer in Germany, and most likely will be another sellout. It goes without saying that both of the Klitschko brothers are enormously popular in their adopted homeland of Germany.

Klitschko is in the unusual situation for him of already looking past his next title defense to a possible showdown with the popular Mexican-American brawler Chris Arreola (35-2, 30 KO’s) possibly in the fall. That fight if “Dr. Steelhammer” has his way will take place in the United States. Arreola is a popular fighter because he comes to fight and against Klitscko will give it his best shot.

In September 2009 Arreola was stopped in ten rounds against Vitali Klitschko. That fight took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and had very good TV ratings. Arreola followed that fight with a 12 round loss to Tomasz Adamek. After the loss to Adamek, Chris decided to take training seriously and got himself into shape.

On February 18 Arreola showed his power when he KO’d Eric Molina (18-2, 14 KO’s) in the 1st round. It was thought by Arreola’s handlers that if the “Nightmare” was impressive in his fight with Molina he would get his 2nd shot at a heavyweight title shot, this time against Wladimir.



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