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On Saturday night at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany, the world’s best Heavyweight, Wladimir Klitchsko, joined the 50 knockout club to retain his WBA Super, WBO, IBF and IBO titles against the former World Cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck, stopping Mormeck in just four rounds.
Prior to the fight, Klitchsko held the height, weight, reach and experience advantages and was the overwhelming betting favourite to retain his titles with odds of 50 to 1 and even 100-1 quoted in some quarters.
There was overwhelming consensus that the younger Klitchsko would be victorious against the overmatched and smaller 40 year old Mormeck, who had not fought since December 2010 after defeating Timur Ibrahimov on a split decision to win a minor WBA trinket in his home city of Paris prior to Saturday night.
However, the consensus on the inevitable Klitchsko victory became split whether or not Klitchsko would knock Mormeck out early or later as Klitchsko had not scored an early knockout since forcing former conqueror and WBO titlist Lamon Brewster to quit after six rounds in Cologne back in 2007 to retain his IBF and IBO belts and that in his last four fights he went the full 12 rounds with David Haye in his last fight back in September 2011.
Prior to this, Klitchsko also knocked out former WBC title holder Sam Peter in 10, knocked out Eddie Chambers with just five seconds left in the fight and caused former WBA title holder Ruslan Chagaev to quit on his stool after nine rounds.
In the opening round of the fight against Mormeck. Klitchsko began to establish that long punishing left jab and also tied up Mormeck when he tried to work inside and was warned twice by referee Luis Pabon for it in the opening stanzas of the round. He also scored with the left hook as well but took too many liberties in the opening stages of the first round.
In the second round, Mormeck was in the opening stages trying to bullrush and unsettle Klitchsko, but Klitchsko responded by tying up the smaller Mormeck on the inside and using his 30 pound weight advantage to continue to lean on Mormeck before re-establishing his jab and throwing his right hand over the top of it to keep Mormeck on the outside before dropping Mormeck midway through the second round.
Toward the end of the round, Klitschko displayed his superior hand speed and power in backing up Mormeck and was looking to take him out early in the second round but ran out of time to do so.
In the third round, Klitchsko immediately took the centre of the ring and continued to repeat the dose of jabbing and grabbing trying to wear Mormeck down. Mormeck simply could not get out of the way of the punches that Klitchsko was throwing and was one point they were both on the canvas toward the end of the round with Mormeck having to be helped up by referee Pabon, who perhaps should have taken firmer action against Klitchsko with the grabbing and leaning of Mormeck, although in between rounds Pabon told Klitschko to cut it out.
In the fourth and what proved to be final round of the fight, Mormeck was starting to bob and weave more, trying to slip under Klitchsko’s punches and work inside to Klitchsko’s body and to bring down the high guard to test the chin of Klitchsko.
But, a minute into the round, Klitchsko threw an overhand right that found the target, dropping Mormeck to the canvas for the second and final time and Mormeck was counted out by Pabon.
Afterward, Klitchsko, ever the sportsman and ambassador, commiserated with Mormeck before receiving the applause of the 50,000 strong crowd.
So what does the future hold for both men after this fight? It is highly likely that for the 40 year old Mormeck, retirement looms strongly, while for Klitchsko, names such as former victim Tony Thompson have been mentioned along with Chris Arreola and Seth Mitchell, and even Britain’s Tyson Fury has been suggested as a future opponent for Wladimir.
But the big question is can anyone break his and brother Vitali’s dominance at the peak of the Heavyweight division? On this showing it looks difficult for the current crop of contenders to do so.
