by Charles Jay
Jean-Marc Mormeck is 39 years old, five-foot-eleven and a puffed-up cruiserweight to boot.
Are these the kind of title defenses that will truly create a “legacy” for Wladimir Klitschko?
Only if he doesn’t look good in the process. That’s the way the world works.
Is he entitled to a “gimme” fight or two? Or three?
I guess that depends on whether you feel the multi-belt heavyweight champion deserves a breather (that’s not a typo; we didn’t mean “brother”).
He probably does, since he most recently disposed of the would-be menace that is David Haye, in an atmosphere that does not have a lot of worthwhile challengers.
This next fight for him is set for December 10 in Germany, and it’s a good thing it’s there, because that is one of the few places it could possibly be sold.
Just so we’ve got everything in order, the titles that will be at stake are: the WBA Super World heavyweight title, the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles, and the IBO (International Boxing Organization) championship. Of course, all that hardware means more to the fighters than it does to anyone else.
Mormeck is 36-4 with 22 KO’s and has “established” himself as a heavyweight with fights against Fres Oquendo and Timur Ibragimov. Those fights were very carefully placed in “friendly” territory. The Ibragimov fight in particular may have been a bit of a robbery; Mormeck won a split decision, in a place (France) where an opponent coming from overseas (Ibragimov is from Uzbekistan, but lives in Florida) is behind the eight-ball from the beginning and has to basically knock someone out with a two-by-four to win a fight.
Another thing – Mormeck was knocked out by Haye (in a cruiserweight title fight), which kind of takes away any of the suspense that might possibly exist in this upcoming matchup, even for those members of the media who would like nothing better than to shill for it.
The silly part of this whole thing is that anybody was even talking about Klitschko having a rematch with Haye, who dodged contact and pissed away his opportunity to really vault himself into the big time when he fought Klitschko on July 2.
Maybe his worthiness (or lack of same) provides a proper perspective for this encounter.
At the same time, Klitschko has done his best to sell the fight by saying that to seriously underestimate his foe could be “a fatal mistake.”
To be fair, Mormeck is hardly without ability.
He lost two of his first five pro fights, before really starting to come into his own, first as a light heavyweight, as he won the WBA Inter-Continental title in 2000 with a win over Livin Castillo. At one point he went on a tear of eight straight KO’s, although over the course of his career, only 22 of his 36 wins were achieved inside the distance.
He actually held a cruiserweight title on two different occasions, beating Virgil Hill for it in February 2002, making four defenses of it, annexing the WBC crown by beating the previously undeefated Wayne Braithwaite. He lost to O’Neill Bell and then beat him in the rematch to regain his belts, then was beaten by Haye. Then it was his choice to move up in weight, as it is with most fighters who lose a belt or a big fight.
You’ve got to affix the blame to SOMETHING, after all.
And there is the added attraction of possibly making more momney. He is following in the footsteps of Tomasz Adamek, another former light heavy and cruiserweight who got his title shot against a Klitschko, and who lost (in a rough moment for the CJ prediction machine).
Mormeck has mentioned to reporters that he had Haye on the floor early in their fight and that this time he’ll “finish the job.” It might have been a better idea to finish the job THEN, of course, but that’s another discussion for another time. It’s one thing for the Klitschko brothers to fight undersized cruiserweights, but if you are going to promote such a thing, at least get someone who brings the threat of a big punch into the proceedings. Even through Haye refused to engage, that was something he had – on paper anyway – that he could hang his hat on.
Mormeck has not beaten a fighter with a winning record, inside the distance, since March 2003, when he defeated Olaksandr Hurov in what was his first appearance in the United States.
Enjoy your paid vacation, Wladimir.
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