By Jason Kim: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 Ko’s) is doing what he has to do to keep a hold of all of his belts by taking on one mandatory challenger after another. That’s the problem with holding down so many titles.
You get stuck fighting mandatories against a lot of lesser heavyweights and it gets in the way of taking more interesting opponents that boxing fans actually want to see. On July 7th, Wladimir will be fighting a rematch against 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) at the Stade de Suisse, in Berne, Switzerland.
I’m sure that 36-year-old Wladimir has much better things to do than to beat up on Thompson again after having already stopped him in the 11th round in a one-sided fight in 2008. It’s not as if Thompson has done anything remarkable since the last time that Wladimir put him on the canvas for an easy win.
Thompson has picked up five wins since his beat down against Wladimir but he hasn’t faced anyone of real note. It’s just been second tier guys that has kept Thompson afloat and the IBF has given Thompson a very, very generous ranking of #2 in the IBF based on those wins. What happens now is Wladimir has to fight Thompson again and knock him out in a one-sided fight instead of taking on someone that would maybe have a slight chance of beating him.
Wladimir crushed the much smaller Jean Marc Mormeck by a 4th round knockout last March in Germany. It wasn’t much of a fight, because Mormeck was little more than a cruiserweight in size and simply didn’t have the height, reach or power to compete with Wladimir.
Thompson, 6’5”, has some good size for a heavyweight but the power and hand speed is lacking. He is a southpaw and that’s always nice, but without power and speed, Thompson is going to struggle against the 6’6” Wladimir. Last time, Thompson was able to make it to the 11th. I can’t see that happening this time around. Wladimir knows what he’s got in this guy, and he’s not going to let him hang around by taking his time with him. Wladimir will start fast and end the fight likely before the fifth round.
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