A forth night ago, Vitali Klitschko defeated Dereck Chisora on points in Germany in defence of his WBC title. And tonight Vitali’s younger brother and holder of the WBO, IBO, IBF titles, Wladimir will fight Frenchman Jean Marc Gilbert Mormeck in Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The two brothers are in possession of all the titles and have refused fighting each other, a promise the brothers made to their mother. Wladimir and Mormeck were scheduled to fight last year but the fight had to be shifted after Vladimir pulled out to undergo surgery to remove a kidney stone.
Wladmir’s last high profile fight was against Briton, David Haye last year. David Haye has since retired but his camp said he may be tempted to come out of retirement to fight against any of the Klitchko brothers. Wladmir will be hoping to beat Mormeck in his 50th career knockout.
He has 49 knockouts in his 59 professional fights, and has lost just three. Wladimir is heading to this fight as the strong favourite. Standing at 1.98 metres tall he has a height and weight advantage over the French man. Wladimir has not been beaten since April 2004 when he suffered a fifth-round technical knock-out to Lamon Brewster in Las Vegas.
The Klitschko’s have very similar way of fighting and their fights against opponents are very identical.
On tonight’s fight against Mormeck, he said: “I am ready for this challenge. I still have the hunger and I do not take this fight lightly. When you see how he talks, looks and moves then that shows he has the will and determination to become the first world heavyweight champion from France.”
Mormeck enters this bout as an underdog. His last fight of real relevance culminated into a knockout loss to David Haye in a cruiserweight battle in 2007. Since changing to heavyweight bouts, Mormeck has won all his three fights. This fight is his fourth heavyweight bout.
Out of his 36 fights he has won 22 by knockouts and is confident that tonight’s he can pull an upset against the Ukrainian. “I have an iron will and I am tough. I fear no one and that is my mental strength,” he said. “Does he have that as well?”
Mormeck may take some lessons from Chisora who was the underdog against Vitali a fortnight ago. But Chisora took the game to the wire and lost by points. Mormeck has to show the power and tenacity of Chisora for him to have any chance of causing an upset.