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Tomorrow at the ESPIRIT Arena in Düsseldorf, world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko defends his RING Magazine crown and his WBO, WBA ("super!"), and IBF (as well as IBO) belts against former world cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck.
[ Weights: Klitschko 244, Mormeck 216 ]
If you have somehow missed my constant stream of hatred for this fight, that might not sound so bad. The trouble is that Mormeck was world cruiserweight champion for eight months, five years ago. After beating O'Neil Bell for the championship (the two had a pair of damn good fights), he lost it to David Haye (they also had a damn good fight).
Since the loss to Haye, Mormeck has been a non-factor. He took two years and did nothing following the loss to Haye, coming back in December 2009 to beat American club heavyweight Vinny Maddalone over eight rounds. He didn't look great in that fight. Mormeck, now 39, followed that up with close wins over Fres Oquendo and Timur Ibragimov. All three of those fights were in France, where Mormeck was given the benefit of the doubt.
Now, having not fought since December 2010, he's back for a shot at Klitschko. Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO) has less than zero chance to win this fight, so I'm not going to bullshit you and try to figure out some way that maybe he could pull this off. Unless Wladimir Klitschko breaks his back throwing a right hand and has to quit due to injury, Mormeck is a total no-hoper. This is a terrible, terrible fight.
So I will now address the idea that, well, who else could Wladimir have fought? He's beaten everyone, you guys! There's no one left!
[ Mormeck Scoffs at Wladimir's Tyson Comparison ]
Here's a condensed list of fighters I would have rather seen than Mormeck:
- Chris Arreola
- Samuel Peter for a third time
- Hasim Rahman rematch
- Antonio Tarver
- Nagy Aguilera
- Fres Oquendo
- James Toney (at least he could shut up about the "Klitschko sisters")
- Bobby Gunn
- Evander Holyfield
- Franklin Lawrence
- Michael Grant
- Manuel Charr
- Monte Barrett
- David Tua
- Alex Leapai
- Oliver McCall
- Sultan Ibragimov rematch ("He's back!" "I coming for you Holyfeel!")
- Mariusz Wach
- Ray Austin rematch
- Bermane Stiverne
- Travis Walker
- Kali Meehan
- Derric Rossy
- DaVarryl Williamson
- Tye Fields
- Leif Larsen
- Shane Cameron
- Ran Nakash
- Roy Jones Jr
- Bowie Tupou
Klitschko will win with ease. If it goes past five rounds, he's carrying it, plain and simple. This fight should not be happening.
Undercard Lineup
In the featured undercard bout, cruiserweight contender and frequent Klitschko sparring partner Ola Afolabi (18-2-3, 8 KO) will face Valery Brudov (39-3, 28 KO) for the interim WBO cruiserweight belt. Afolabi has won four straight since a loss to Marco Huck, but all of his opponents were chum. Brudov, 35, challenged for the WBA belt in 2006, losing to Virgil Hill, and again in 2010, losing to Guillermo Jones. Given that Afolabi is talented but doesn't really have any big wins, this might be a fairly interesting matchup, and an upset wouldn't be totally shocking.
Also in action will be the dreaded Alexander Ustinov (24-0, 16 KO), who has taken advantage of Nikolai Valuev's absence from the ring to claim the vacant title of World's Most Lumbering Heavyweight. Ustinov has won all his fights, but he sucks, and don't let anyone tell you differently. The day he gets in with a skilled fighter who actually comes to win, he'll get picked apart. Eddie Chambers, for instance, would shut this guy out and possibly knock him out. He's really bad. He's facing Kertson Manswell (22-4, 17 KO), who isn't any good himself but will become a hero to me if he manages to end this Ustinov nonsense, because his record is leading people to act like he's a relevant factor in the division. They're scheduled for eight, because usually more than six makes Ustinov very tired anyway.
Hungarian welterweight prospect Laszlo Toth (8-0-1, 6 KO) will be in an eight-round welterweight bout against Stefan Worth (12-2-1, 3 KO). Albanian welterweight Timo Schwartzkopf (6-0, 4 KO) is scheduled to fight, apparently, and just fought on the Klitschko vs Chisora card. And Kronk junior middleweight Tony Harrison (4-0, 4 KO) faces Harun Akcabelen (10-4-1, 7 KO) of Turkey.