By Sean McDaniel: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) is facing another old heavyweight in his next fight against 40-year-old Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) in a fight that next to nobody wants to see on July 7th at the Stade de Suisse, in Berne, Switzerland. There’s no way around this fight for Wladimir, because the #2 IBF Thompson is Wladimir’s mandatory.
It’s not an interesting fight, through, mostly because Wladimir already knocked Thompson out four years ago in an 11th round TKO in 2008. Thompson hasn’t done much to earn a second shot against Wladimir, but that’s more of the fault of the International Boxing Federation by failing to set up a higher standard for handing out title shots.
After Thompson was beaten by Wladimir in 2009, Thompson turned around and beat these fighters to earn a second title shot: Adnan Serin, Chazz Witherspoon, Owen Beck, Paul Marinaccio and Maurice Harris. In other words, the 6’5″ Thompson has beaten five straight 2nd tier heavyweights to become Wladimir’s mandatory challenger. It’s too bad Thompson didn’t have to face #3 IBF Chris Arreola, #4 Robert Helenius or #5 Denis Boytsov to get a second shot at the title because it only leads to more mismatches by throwing in a guy that hasn’t proven himself since his last loss.
Wladimir defeated Jean Marc Mormeck by a 4th round TKO last March in an ugly to watch fight filled with clinching all night. Wladimir had an easy fight against the much smaller 5’11”, 39-year-old Mormeck, but made it incredibly boring by clinching Mormeck for three rounds before taking him out with a combination in the 4th round. Thankfully, Wladimir was able to take Mormeck out by the 4th because it would have been really ugly to watch if Wladimir let Mormeck stick around until the later rounds to make Wladimir look bad.
Thompson doesn’t have much power to speak of, so this should be an easy fight for Wladimir if he comes out fast and looks to take him out.
Comments are closed.