Wladimir Klitschko vs Jean Marc Mormeck: Fight Close for December 10
by Scott Christ on Sep 12, 2011 12:45 AM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
Email
Print
Lem Satterfield of RingTV.com reports that a fight between world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and former cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck is close for December 10, with the fight "virtually a done deal."
This is a truly lousy fight for Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO), who is coming off of a 12-round decision win over David Haye on July 2, which was one of the year's most-hyped fights, and in some ways one of the year's most disappointing. The year's two most-hyped heavyweight fights have, in fact, been the Klitschko brothers against former cruiserweight champions (Haye and Tomasz Adamek), and on Saturday especially, we saw that the size differential was just too much when Vitali had an easy time with a game but greatly outsized Adamek.
Unfortunately, the 39-year-old Mormeck is not only even smaller than Adamek, he's well past his prime, too. Since losing the cruiserweight championship to David Haye in 2007, the 5'11" Mormeck has fought three times. He took two years off before returning as a heavyweight to defeat club fighter Vinny Maddalone by eight-round decision. After that, he got a very controversial decision win over Fres Oquendo, and most recently, beat Timur Ibragimov via split decision on December 2, 2010.
Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO) is in no way a legitimate challenge for Klitschko, and if the fight is signed, it will deserve the criticism that will come its way. The Frenchman is too small, too old, and hasn't really earned the shot at all. He won't have a prayer.
32 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
It gets worse every day at Heavyweight.
Vitali all but acknowledged the problem that has persisted during their reign. Size.
Everyone else is too small.
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
This would be the greatest mismatch since Baer-Canera. If this happens, and I really don't believe it will, Vitali
should hold his head in shame. He will lose much respect and will be vilified for not fighting al least 10 guys who are better than Jean. Please, either retire or fight a live body which JMM is not.
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." - Mike Quarry
Boxrec
lists WK with 1332 points atm, Vitali scores 1290. This should be the chance for Vitali to grab the #1, a win against David Haye should do that.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Boxrec’s ranking are pretty irrelevant, imo.
by Matt Mosley on Sep 12, 2011 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions
They are better than most mate.
I’ve never considered myself as a legend – just a simple man with heart.
I strongly disagree. They are quite often ridiculous, as i said in a different thread the other day. They have Nonito Donaire at no. 27 on their P4P list, fo crying out loud, behind the likes of Cornelius Bundrage.
Another example i will use, as i did the other day, is that they continued to rank Mikkel Kessler above Andre Ward at 168 for a long time after Ward drubbed Kessler.
Some divisions they get right but not all of them, mainly because it’s based on a points system, instead of using intuition, strength of wins/performances and level of competition, etc. The points system they use is often fallible as far as i’m concerned.
Bad Left Hook, The Ring, ESPN and plenty of others are much closer to reality, imo.
Testify!
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Sep 12, 2011 1:38 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
it’s based on a points system, instead of using intuition, strength of wins/performances and level of competition, etc.
They do not use intuition, but they do consider level of competition as well as some indicators of strenght of win (http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/BoxRec_Ratings_Description#Ratings_structure). Of course the list might still be quite wrong with some results, particularly if fighters don’t mix variance of opponents enough, particularly if there’s handpicked opponents. But the system is IMO quite as educated as it can get if you wanna stick to “objective” facts.
It’s quite similar to the ELO of chess.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Their formula gets things wrong is the problem. The system could get far more educated, but they give little respect at all to anyone below featherweight, which is a huge problem, and furthermore, boxing is not a sport that lends itself well to “just the facts, ma’am.” If you do that, you wind up with Devon Alexander as the No. 4 junior welterweight, when I think that grossly overrates him coming off of the Kotelnik-Bradley-Matthysse run. Is there anyone in the world besides BoxRec that has Jessie Vargas ranked ahead of Lucas Matthysse?
Boxing is a sport that needs subjective analysis when doing rankings. Not everyone fights each other, and try though they may, they can’t really formulate a way to accurately gauge strength of opposition, and deal with robbery wins/losses, and things of that nature. Cornelius Bundrage at No. 3 (154), Paul Williams at No. 5 (154), Humberto Soto at No. 5 (140) — there are so many big problems I have with their rankings.
As I’ve said, I appreciate their effort, and where I find them useful is for guys who are outside of a division’s top 40 or so, to see where they’re ranked “objectively” compared to others near their level.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Sep 12, 2011 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions
well how can you even say that
when you switched up haye for Adamek in the BLH ranking? Their both coming off losses to K bros. difference is Adamek actually went to fight.
I’ve never considered myself as a legend – just a simple man with heart.
when you switched up haye for Adamek in the BLH ranking? Their both coming off losses to K bros. difference is Adamek actually went to fight.
And that makes Adamek better than Haye? Hey, by your logic, Albert Sosnowski is better than Haye! He came to fight – got brutalized – but hey! NUMBER 3 IN THE WORLD!
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Sep 13, 2011 7:18 AM EDT up reply actions
Boxing is a sport that needs subjective analysis when doing rankings.
This is the bottom line when it comes to ranking, IMO!
Subjective analysis by people who know the sport and know what they are watching and evaluating.
Subjective analysis by people who know the sport and know what they are watching and evaluating.
..and who are free of any kind of side-interest in the ranking and who know and can control for their own preferances and likings. And this is very much to ask for. I’m not saying that Boxrec is the last word of the subject, but it got a number of advantages (including the pure amount of boxers they have listed) that I usually have a look there when I want to get to know a boxer better. Of course, there’s way more regarding an elaborated ranking than the formula they use can provide for. But the formula is incorrupt, and that’s a huuuuuuge bonus.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Oh, i like Boxrec and use it regularly, mostly for fighter records but i also check the rankings.
I just don’t take them all that seriously, whereas the other site rankings that i mentioned, i use as a more accurate guide, when talking Top 10 fighters.
You make a good point about possible corruption in the rankings though.
It has happened before at the Ring and, although i can’t say i know of any suspicious ranking there at the moment, i wouldn’t rule it out.
by Matt Mosley on Sep 13, 2011 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Totally agree. I’m quite happy going with the Bad Left Hook Top 10s for each division and then looking at the Boxrec rankings for lesser known fighters.
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Sep 13, 2011 7:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Kevin Johnson isn't a better option than anyone.
"We've come a long way, and I'm not talking about Virginia Slims, either." - Art Howe
I’m not going to lie, I’d rather see even David Tua get a shot. He lost to Monte Barrett, but I’m still comfortable knowing he’d walk forward all night and still has some kind of power. Mormeck has about as good a shot as Albert Sosnowski had, and I maintain Sosnowski is the worst of all the fourth and fifth rate heavyweight title contenders that are around these days.
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
Ehh…while this is a terrible fight, I’d be much more inclined to feel outraged if there was some highly worthy challenger who was getting passed over….but there’s not. The brothers have beaten everyone of note in overwhelming fashion. Guys like Robert Helenius and Tyson Fury seem content to continue working their ways up, and Povetkin wants no part of the brothers. So what can you do?
Personally, i would rather see someone like Alex Dimitrenko, Cris Arreola, Tony Thompson, or even Nicolai Valuev as Wlad’s next challenger.
All of them would be much more worthy than JMM, imo, who has done absolutely nothing at heavyweight to deserve this shot.
We might just have to agree to disagree there. Valuev hasn’t fought in nearly two years, and may never fight again due to various injuries and health problems. Arreola also had his shot already and lost badly. He’s won a few since, but his only opponent of note in that span is Adamek, who he lost to. Dimitrenko might be interesting though, but he’d have to get a little more active.
Now please note, I’m in no way trying to argue that Mormeck is a “worthy” challenger. I’m just trying to argue that there are no “worthy” challengers. And since the Klitschko’s clearly aren’t ducking anyone, I have a difficult time getting upset about one taking a “gimme” fight. Gives other challengers a chance to sort it out amongst themselves so just maybe we can eventually get a “worthy” challenger.
Jesus.
lol @ the heavyweight division.
by Shitali Klitschko on Sep 14, 2011 9:53 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bad Left Hook
Related FanShots on Bad Left Hook
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
