Wladimir Klitschko vs. Jean-Marc Mormeck Preview

At five feet, eleven and one half inches, and 215 and one half pounds, at first glance, Jean-Marc Mormeck of France would seem to be too short and too small to fight Dr. Wladimir Klitschko for the World Heavyweight championship.

After all, Klitschko is six feet six inches and 242 pounds. But the bout isn’t the mismatch it seems, but rather a case of Mormeck not having enough experience at the 200 pound plus heavyweight level of competition after having spent his entire career at the sub-200 pound level.

This will be Mormeck’s thirteenth championship bout, having fought for the WBC, WBA and IBF crowns as well as the WBA Intercontinental and International belts.

Mormeck, who is only three months shy of his fortieth birthday, turned professional on March 25, 1995, with a first round stoppage of Pierrick Trideau in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Mormeck has compiled a career record of 36-4 with 22 knockouts in bouts held in France, Spain, South Africa, Finland, the United States and Venezuela.

Mormeck has fought only three times since losing his WBA and WBC cruiserweight titles to David Haye in 2007. The three heavyweight bouts which followed, all in France, raise more questions than they provide answers.

In his December 2009 bout against Vinny Maddalone, one judge had Mormeck ahead only 77-75 in the eight rounder, and Mormeck had trouble at various points during the bout with the strong but technically limited Maddalone. Mormeck’s May 2010 bout against American Fres Oquendo was a very questionable 96-95, 96-95, 96-94 decision.

Mormeck was lucky in December 2010 to receive a 12 round split decision win for the WBA Inter-Continental title over Timor Ibragimov. In any other jurisdiction besides France, it is doubtful these decisions would have gone Mormeck’s way.

Mormeck lacks knockout power against heavyweight opposition; as evidence, Seth Mitchell easily stopped Timor Ibragimov is less than two rounds in Ibragimov’s next fight. To defeat Klitschko on points or by stoppage, Mormeck must have significant power against such a much taller and heavier opponent.

Like Tomas Adamek, Jean-Marc Mormeck has made the transition from cruiserweight champion to heavyweight contender. Unfortunately, he lacks the power to get inside of Wladimir’s defenses and make a fight of it.

Klitschko will succeed in keeping the shorter Mormeck on the outside out of range, where his powerful jabs will eventually do their damage and earn Wladimir a stoppage win in rounds eight, nine or ten, depending on how rapidly Klitschko can get the job done here.

The bout will take place in Germany, where Mormeck has never fought while Klitschko has fought most of his pro fights in Germany.

At 215 pounds, cruiserweights turned heavyweight like Tomas Adamek and Jean-Marc Mormeck are not really heavyweight but rather ‘super cruiserweights’, holding an IBA and sometimes lesser boxing authority world championship belt at 190 to 215 pounds.

At this point in time, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin are the three heavyweight champions and represent the big money bouts. Mormeck, like Adamek, was far more effective fighting at 200 pounds or less. After the Wladimir Kltschko bout, Mormeck, like Marco Huck, should return to the cruiserweight division where he belongs. Mormeck is not going to win world titles above 200 pounds because he is too small. At nearly 40, this may be his last big bout.

World heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano may have been short and small for the division, but he punched with power. Mormeck is short and small like Marciano, but lacks the power to pull off an upset.

Mormeck’s ability to survive the distance in this bout depends on his corner. He has to listen and follow instructions if he thinks he can get a shot at the world title. To survive Wladimir, Mormeck has to make sure he can get on the inside but Wladimir’s repeated jabs are too numerous to allow the Frenchman to do that.

In all likelihood, Mormeck’s best possible performance will be to survive the 12 round distance and not get knocked out. David Haye, Samuel Peter, Sultan Ibragimov and Chris Byrd have all gone the 12 round distance. However, if Mormeck tries to slug it out, he will get hit too much and the outcome of the bout will be similar to Mormeck’s seventh round stoppage by David Haye in 2007.

If there is a mistake to be made by Wladimir Klitschko, it will be if Klitschko stands in front of Mormeck and tries to slug it out. Mormeck did hit powerful enough to have David Haye on the canvas in the fourth round of their encounter but he has not knocked out an opponent with either a winning record or in a title fight since March 2003 when he stopped Alexander Gurov in the eighth round to defend his WBA Cruiserweight title in Las Vegas.

A technical fight by Mormeck is not enough to deal with either Klitschko. Given the height, weight and size differential between Mormeck and Wladimir, and given Wladimir’s edge with greater ring experience, Mormeck will have real trouble getting inside on Wladimir like he did against Virgil Hill twice and in the O’Neil Bell rematch. Mormeck’s eight opponents in nine title fights have a combined 251 wins. Perhaps Mormeck’s most significant win was his ten round decision win over Fres Oquendo at heavyweight.

Given the right sort of technical fight, getting to the inside of Wladimir and then getting out while constantly moving, Mormeck could win two, three, or even four rounds. More than that would be hard to believe.

Mormeck might also run out of gas like he did in the first O’Neil Bell bout at Madison Square Garden, where his tenth round stoppage seemed more due to exhaustion than the final punch thrown.

Referee Luis Pabon of Puerto Rico is coming off his officiating of the Alexander Povetkin vs. Marco Huckcontest last weekend in Germany and did an admirable job.

Fight fans might best remember him as the referee of the WBA heavyweight bout between David Haye and Nicolai Valuev in Germany in November 2009, and the WBA title bout between Nicolai Valuev and Evander Holyfield in Zurich, Switzerland in 2008.

Pabon previously refereed Wladimir Klitschko’s fourth round stoppage of Joseph Chingangu in a WBA Inter-Continental Heavyweight title bout in Dusseldorf, Germany in July 1999, so he knows Klitschko well. He knows Mormeck well too, having refereed Mormeck’s WBA Cruiserweight world title win over Dale Brown, an eighth round stoppage in August 2002. So, Pabon has refereed stoppages for both fighters on their home turf. He is not preferential to either boxer.

While most of the several hundred bouts and many world title bouts refereed by Pabon are in Puerto Rico in the lower weight class range between minimumweight and welterweight, including many Latin regional title bouts, he is a most qualified, neutral and fair referee and has refereed world title bouts around the world.

Perhaps the world heavyweight title bout of any kind refereed by Pabon was Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs’ 11 second knockout of Brazil’s Luciano Zolyone in December 2005. One punch did the trick, and Zolyone, then 22-0, was counted out by Pabon.

This bout was for the vacant WBC Fecarbox Heavyweight title and serves as a reminder that if Klitschko-Mormeck turns out to be a mismatch, Pabon will stop the bout. When Nicolai Valuev fought Owen Beck for the WBA Heavyweight title in Germany June 2006, Pabon stopped the mismatch at 2:44 of the third round.

While Mormeck will not be expected to run from Klitschko, if Mormeck wages an inside fight and tries to take the fight to him, his attacks will be of several punches followed by rough wrestling clinches. Mormeck will have to be a master of tying Wladimir up the entire night, meaning a most active night for referee Pabon.

Klitschko might win this sort of a fight on points. If Mormeck is successful at tying Wladimir up, Klitschko is bound to feel frustrated for much of the bout, and it could turn ugly in the contrast of styles, though not due to fouls.

Jean-Marc Mormeck is not stronger than Wladimir Klitschko and ultimately, smaller Mormeck will have to stay away on the move from the big power puncher all night if he is to carry out any sort of in and out game plan. If Mormeck provides a silly stationary target at any point in this bout, Klitschko will knock him out.

For Mormeck to be ‘in the house’, he will have to take dangerous chances to wage a war on the inside and neutralize Wladimir’s size and power. If Wladimir can work his jab on the outside and cut Mormeck off in the ring, Mormeck will be in trouble.