By John F. McKenna (McJack)
WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) was forced to postpone his scheduled title defense next Saturday night after emergency surgery over the weekend to remove a kidney stone. Wladimir was scheduled to defend his title against former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KO’s).
Wladimir had initially hoped that he would be able to go ahead with the defense against Mormeck, but he was advised against it. Saturday night’s fight against Mormeck would have been the 20th time that “Dr. Steelhammer” has participated in a heavyweight title fight.
The Daily Mail online reported early today that Klitschko’s manager Bernd Boente and Dr. Peter Albers held a press conference Monday morning confirming that the fight between Klitschko and Mormeck had been called off. Boente put out March 3 as a possible date to reschedule the match. That would all depend on Mormeck accepting the new date. In addition the International Boxing Federation (IBF) would have to go along with the new date. Under normal circumstances the IBF would demand that Klitschko fight a mandatory challenger on that date.
Klitschko last defended his title in July when he pitched a near shutout against then WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-2, 23 KO’s). It is thought by many boxing observers that Wladimir’s defense against the lightly regarded Mormeck was going to be a “stay busy” fight for Klitschko. But in reality a number of potential opponents opted out of fighting Klitschko. “Regular” WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin and Chris Arreola have turned down offers to fight Klitschko, at least for the time being. Mormeck has had only three fights since losing to David Haye in November 2007 and at 5’11” there would be a huge size disadvantage. Up to this point no fighter has been able to solve the riddle of how to get past Wladimir’s long powerful left jab.
6’9” Tyson Fury acknowledges that he is not yet ready for Klitschko and with 6’6” Robert Helenius’s disappointing performance against Dereck Chisora on Saturday night, there does not appear to be very many bona fide opponents for Wladimir. It is pretty well acknowledged that Helenius received a gift decision over Chisora a fighter who was earlier beaten convincingly by Fury.
