Gordon Williams, Contributor
Left: Jamaica's O'Neil Bell, who is based in Atlanta, Georgia, celebrates after knocking out Jean-Marc Mormeck of Pointe-a-Pite, France, in the 10th round of their boxing match at New York's Madison Square Garden, on Saturday night. Bell won the unified Cruiserweight Championship. Promoter Don King watches at left. Right: Jean-Marc Mormeck looks up after being knocked out in the 10th round by O'Neil 'Supernova' Bell in their undisputed Cruiserweight boxing championship bout at Madison Square Garden in New York, on Saturday. - REUTERS PHOTOS
NEW YORK
JAMAICA'S O'NEIL Bell landed a vicious flurry of punches late in the 10th round to send Jean-Marc Mormeck crumpling to the canvas and in the process crowned himself the undisputed Cruiserweight champion of the world on Saturday night at a packed Madison Square Garden in New York.
The knockout by 'Supernova' Bell, scored two minutes and 50 seconds into the round, dramatically ended a punishing fight with both boxers, although showing contrasting styles, scoring brutal shots throughout the night.
Bell, who entered the ring to Bob Marley's Soul Rebel wearing a green robe with gold trimmings and holding the International Boxing Federation's version of the 200-pound title, claimed the Frenchman's World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council belts with the victory as well.
According to the 30-year-old, Montego Bay-born fighter, his plan to take the fight to Mormeck early, using mainly the jab, uppercuts and body shots to wear down the Frenchman, worked for the most part, although not perfectly.
"I knew I could hurt him," Bell said while cooling down in his dressing room after the fight, with only a small reddish mark over his right eye and an ice pack in his rib area reflecting any damage he may have suffered in the bout.
"When I first hurt him, I said I was gonna take my time; patience, patience and break him down. I went to the body, went to the head. He folded.
"...It didn't work out to the effect that I wanted to. I wanted to go out there and box him," he said shortly after. "But the first three, four rounds he was very strong, so I wanted to smother his shots, take his power away from him. He couldn't fight inside close so I had to smother his shots. But after the fourth, fifth round he was slipping, slipping, deteriorating."
That "first hurt" came as early as the fourth round, according to Bell but the man who calls himself "Supernova", and whose handlers proudly paraded a large Jamaican flag in the ring prior to the start of the fight, was not yet ready to complete the kill.
In that round Bell danced and showboated a bit, often letting his guard down in a crouching stance and inviting Mormeck to hit him. Mormeck did too, with a telling flurry early, but according to Bell he was never hurt. Ringside observers marveled at Bell's durability.
"I thought he (Bell) did a magnificent job after being hit by some bodacious punches," long-time American boxing analyst Bert Sugar told The Gleaner.
Yet, again, in the seventh round, maybe his best of the fight before the knockout, Bell buckled Mormeck with snapping right hand shots, sending the crowd, which had earlier embraced the Frenchman, into a frenzy.
Shouts of "lick 'im Bell" could even be heard above the charged din.
But the final toll for the counter-attacking Mormeck came almost unexpectedly. Bell again pushed forward in the 10th round, but still found time for showboating by grabbing his shorts and doing a little jig.
According to him, that too was part of the plan.
"He was real strong, but I had to take his will," Bell said. "Mental. It's not all physical. (Mormeck's saying) 'this man is taking hard shots and he's still playing around with me, he's still exposing himself'. Right then and there I took his mind, then I started working his physical attributes and breaking him down continuously."
But the clowning around soon gave way to more 'serious business'. With the round winding down, Bell cut off the ring, jammed Mormeck into a neutral corner and bombarded him with heavy shots to the head. Mormeck buckled, turned his head and then agonisingly fell to the canvas.
The loudspeaker count started, then stopped at four as the referee waved the fight over, signalling Bell's rise to the summit of the boxing's world's cruiserweight division with a record of 26 wins with 24 knockouts, a loss and a draw. And leaving no more room to possibly debate that.
-Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States
