By John F. McKenna (McJack): As is usually the case, when WBA/IBF/IBF/WBO and Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 51 KO’s) makes an announcement as to who his next opponent will be, many in the boxing community immediately begin to grumble. Such was the case when the Klitschko camp announced that “Dr. Steelhammer” would be defending his title against unbeaten Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KO’s) on November 10 in Hamburg, Germany.

Critics are quick to point out that while Wach is undefeated he is still relatively untested against credible opponents, and that is true. The problem that besets both of the Klitschko brothers is that they have cleaned out the heavyweight division and made it look easy.

Wladimir easily dispatched of his IBF mandatory challenger Tony Thompson (36-3, 24 KO’s) in July. Thompson put up virtually no resistance to Klitschko and was stopped in the 6th round. Last March Klitschko stopped Jean-Marc Mormeck (36-5, 22 KO’s) in the 4th round and critics were correct when they complained that Mormeck did not belong in the same ring with Wladimir.

The problem is that many of the up and coming fighters do not wish to risk their boxing careers by facing Klitschko and getting KO’d. Alexander Povetkin, Tyson Fury, Robert Helenius and Chris Arreola are among the fighters who chose not to accept a fight with Wladimir when he was searching for viable opponents last fall. “Dr. Steelhammer” was forced to go with Mormeck.

Wach on the other hand is eager to test the waters by taking on Wladimir. What makes this fight particularly interesting is the fact that Mariusz will be the first opponent Wladimir has faced that he will have to look up. Wach is 6’7 ½” while Wladimer is 6’6”. At approximately 250 pounds Wach will also have a slight weight advantage. In addition the “Viking” as Wach’s fans call him has punching power and intends to use it against Wladimir. More importantly Mariusz really wants this fight and unlike some of his recent opponents, he apparently thinks he can win.

The situation which presently exists in the heavyweight division is reminiscent to what the great Joe Louis faced in 1941. Louis, who won the heavyweight crown in June of 1937 via an 8th round KO stoppage, had pretty well cleaned up the division. He defended his title with such frequency (seven times) in 1941 that boxing writers began to refer to it as “The bum of the month club”. Just as today, there were constant calls for the heavyweight champion to step it up and fight a legitimate contender. The fact was that there were no legitimate challengers left and Louis was forced to fight whoever was available. Still there were those who were critical of the “Brown Bomber”.

Eventually Louis fought lightning fast light heavyweight champion Billy Conn. As could be well imagined Louis received tons of criticism from boxing pundits of the time for taking on Conn. Surprisingly the Louis – Conn fight was a classic and one of the greatest heavyweight championship fights of all time. Perhaps sometimes soon boxing fans will again be blessed to witness such a fight.