Heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50) will look to make yet another successful defense of his world titles, including the Ring Magazine, WBA "super", WBO and IBF as he faces unbeaten Pole Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15) in an interesting battle of the giants.
Although Wach is unbeaten he is the big under-dog going in to this fight, however some are tipping the Pole to shock the world. I myself can't see it, however it is fair to say that Wach is likely to be Wladimir's biggest challenge in quite some time, in fact at over 6'7" it's fair to say Wach is one of the biggest challenges in the division, period.
With his huge height and unbeaten record Wach does make for an interesting proposition for Klitschko. Then when you also factor in things such as the fact Wach is young than Wladimir by 4 years and also has a marginally bigger reach (82" to Wladimir's 81") it's little a little wonder that some are favouring Wach. Sadly however Wach isn't as good as his record looks and so far, in a career dating back to 2005, Wach hasn't scored a a really major win, instead feasting on club fighters like Kevin McBride and Tye Fields. In fact it's fair to say that Wach's best win to date is over Jason Gavern, not a world level fighter.
Despite the fact Wach hasn't faced anyone near world level, he has shown solid power, especially in recent bouts. In fact despite his record only showing a 55% KO rate he has stopped his last 7 opponents dating back to April 2009 including scoring eye catching KO's over both McBride and Christian Hammer.
Sadly despite seemingly developing his punch power, Wach is slow, he's clumsy and his over-all skills are limited, to say the least. Other than his size it's fair to say there is little to really but shocked by.
Like the challenger, the champion, Wladimir Klitschko is tall, however Klitschko is much, much more than just a tall Heavyweight. As we all know Wladimir is arguably the hardest puncher in the sport with his straight right hand being genuinely deadly, he also posses an excellent, fight controlling jab and whilst he's not got the aggression of some of the most memorable Heavyweights out there he is incredibly hard to beat.
The long standing feeling over Klitschko is that he's chinny and easily beatable as a result, however he's managed to go unbeaten in over 8 years and won no less than 13 title fights in that period. Not only has he been winning, but he's been beating the top guys in the division such as Chris Byrd, Samuel Peter, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Eddie Chambers and of course the supposed saviour of the division David Haye.
I can't help but think that Klitschko is going to have a bit of a field day with Wach. Wach may be able to, whack (excuse the pun) but Klitschko is able to do a bit more than just punch, so I imagine he'll box, manage to use his superior foot work and get off on Wach in a cautious bout. I think it will start really slowly but Wladimir will manage to detonate his right hand in the middle rounds and Wach will topple. Don't expect this to be exciting, but expect it to be...interesting.
Sadly however, as we all know, Wladimir Klitschko's long term trainer Emmanuel Steward passed away recently. This will be the first time Klitschko will fight with out Steward in a number of years, and hopefully this won't get to Wladimir. As we all know, Wladimir was re-invented under Steward and hopefully this won't see Wlad forgetting the teachings of his much missed mentor.
Prediction: Klitschko KO8
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