By Jim Dower: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) weighed in at 244.6 pounds during Friday’s weigh-in for his bout against 39-year-old challenger Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. For his part, Mormeck weighed 216.1 pounds.

What this means is Wladimir, 6’6″, will have close to a 30 pound weight advantage in the fight in addition to his seven inch height advantage over the 5’11” Mormeck. Although Wladimir has said that his size advantage won’t help him in this fight it’s difficult to imagine a fighter as old and small as Mormeck will be able to make up for his lack of size to be competitive, let alone have a chance to win the fight. Wladimir has been busy for months trying to deflect criticism of his choice of Mormeck and has spent much of the time building up Mormeck to be a dangerous opponent rather than tearing him apart like a lot of champions would likely be doing.

Mormeck has spent most of his career at cruiserweight where he previously held the WBA and WBC titles. He moved up in weight to the heavyweight division in December 2009 and has fought several times but has failed to impress against B level opposition.

Still, Mormeck has been given a decent rankings by the sanctioning bodies and Wladimir picked him out likely due to his more recognizable name compared to the other heavyweight contenders. Unfortunately, Mormec’s accomplishments came in the past from 2002 to 2007 when he was one of the best cruiserweights in the division. He’s done little since losing his WBA/WBC titles to David Haye in 2007.