IBF/WBA/WBO/IBO and „The Ring Magazine“ World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko will defend his titles against Tony Thompson (USA) at STADE DE SUISSE in Bern, Switzerland, on July 7.
Tony „The Tiger“ Thompson (40) is from Washington D.C. and the official IBF mandatory challenger. The 6’ 5’’ is a southpaw and has a fight record of 36 wins (24 KOs) and two defeats.
In 2008, at the sold out o2 World Hamburg Thompson fought against Wladimir Klitschko as the official WBO contender and lost a very close and equal fight in round 11 by KO. Since then he has won all his five bouts.
For 36-year-old Wladimir Klitschko it is his second appearance in the boxing ring after his impressive domination and title unification against David Haye in July 2011. In March, he scored a fourth round KO against former Cruiserweight World Champion Jean-Marc Mormeck at the sold out Esprit arena in Düsseldorf, Germany. The professional record of the 1996 Olympic Gold medalist Klitschko is 57 wins (50 KOs) with only 3 losses. It will be Klitschko’s 21st World Championship fight.
Tony Thompson: „I have been waiting a long time for this rematch. Last time I had an injury which I suffered in training. In Berne, I will complete what I missed out four years ago. I will knock Klitschko out and take all his belts to the US.”
Wladimir Klitschko: „Thompson is a strong and difficult opponent fighting southpaw. He has a very good technique and gave me one of the toughest challenges in my career. Through his height it is a fight at eye level and I know that he has gained a lot of confidence through his winning streak. I am looking forward to defending my titles in Bern where my brother Vitali fought in 2009 with great support of the Swiss crowd.”
RTL will broadcast the fight from STADE DE SUISSE in Bern live and exclusively in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In the US, it will be shown on EPIX. Ticket sale starts on April 17 on www.ticketcorner.ch.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
