By Jason Kim: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) doesn’t plan on letting 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-1 24 KO’s) hang around in their rematch on July 7th at the Stade de Suisse, in Berne, Switzerland.
Last time Wladimir fought Thompson four years ago, Thompson, #2 IBF, landed more punches on Wladimir than any other opponent before or since before finally succumbing to a furious assault from Wladimir in the 11th. Wladimir doesn’t want to let the 6’5″ southpaw Thompson hang around that long for this fight, as he intends on getting him out of there as quick as possible to avoid taking punishment.
Wladimir said this as quoted by Fightnews.com “I already knocked out Thompson four years ago. I promise to do it again.”
For Wladimir’s sake, he better do it again because if he leaves Thompson out there for the full 12 rounds he’s going to get beat up a little like he did last time. In their fight in 2008, Wladimir was landing right hands all night long but they had no affect on Thompson. He was able to take the shots and connect with a lot of jabs, and occasional right hooks and left hands. Wladimir ended up getting bloodied by Thompson’s shots. One of the problems Wladimir had in the fight was his inability to land his jab. Thompson did a good job of shutting down Wladimir’s jabs by blocking many of them, and Wladimir never did attempt to throw many left hooks until the last part of the fight. Had he thrown more left hooks early, Thompson wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long.
Thompson defeated Maurice Harris by a 3rd round TKO last May in the IBF heavyweight title eliminator match. It wasn’t much of a fight because Harris wasn’t throwing anything back at Thompson and was taking his slow punches over and over again without offering up much in return. Thompson knocked Harris down in the 2nd and 3rd rounds before the fight was eventually halted.
Wladimir defeated Jean Marc Mormeck by a 4th round knockout last month in Dusseldorf. The fight was a huge mismatch, as Mormeck, 39, didn’t have the height, power or the reach to compete with the 6’6″ Wladimir. What made the fight almost unwatchable was all the clinching that Wladimir was doing throughout the fight. Despite Mormeck having no offense, Wladimir was grabbing him as if he needed to avoid getting hit by him.
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