http://www.maxboxing.com/Woods/Woods122105.aspJean-Marc Mormeck Targets Lamon Brewster---First, He Has To Shut Up O'Neil Bell
t's gotta suck being a cruiserweight sometimes. You can be one of the very best 200-pounds-or-under fighters in the world and you're as anonymous as a strawweight. And when someone does recognize or acknowledge you, you get the Nicky Hilton treatment; undeniably, you're talented and quite lovely in your own right, but when anyone sees you, they ask how Paris is doing.
Only in the case of Jean-Marc Mormeck and O'Neil Bell, two top- tier cruisers who are slated to meet up on Jan. 7 at Madison Square for the first cruiserweight ultra-unification title bout since Evander Holyfield collected all the meaningful belts in 1988, people ask the fight-game equivalent: when you going up to heavyweight?
So we'll get that out of the way "immediatement," which is French for "immediately," which I write in honor of the Frenchman Mormeck, and in any case is one of a handful of words I recall from high school French...
On a Tuesday afternoon Showtime conference call to hype the cruiser belt consolidation portion of the Jan. 7 MSG card, which features Zab Judah's welterweight faceoff with challenger Carlos Baldomir, Mormeck and Bell showed themselves to be kindred spirits on that matter, and that alone. Each fighter stated that if they were to leave the Garden with the WBA and WBC belts (currently worn by Mormeck) and the IBF belt
(owned by Bell), they'd go the Jeffersons route, and move on up.
"It's been my dream to be a heavyweight," said Mormeck (31-2, 21 KOs), who snagged the WBA crown against Virgil Hill on Feb. 23, 2002 (TKO9) and took the WBC belt from Wayne Braithwaite in April (UD12), through an interpreter. "I'd go right to heavyweight." Currently riding a 28-fight winning streak, Mormeck professed a wish to target WBO heavyweight titlist Lamon Brewster if/when he dispatches Bell.
Bell (25-1-1, 23 KOs), who earned his IBF title when he beat Dale Brown (UD12) in May, said that he'd head north to richer climes, with James Toney being his preferred target, if/when he did away with Mormeck. "I want to be a heavyweight," he said. "I started at 210 pounds and went to light heavyweight. This unification will help me make a name for myself."
The subject of names was a popular theme on the call. Showtime is running a contest which will enable those so moved to choose Mormeck's "nom de guerre." Potential choices include: "Hit the Deck" Mormeck and "Mighty" Mormeck. Webheads can log onto the Showtime website and vote from Dec. 26 until the day of the fight. Bell, 30, happily weighed in with his choice: "Mighty Mouse would be a better choice after the
fight."
Bell, who talks smack about as well as he fights, used to answer to "Give 'Em Hell" Bell, but dropped the moniker after his disappointing effort against Brown. He's now using "Supernova" as his handle, he told callers, because the negative connotations of "Hell" suddenly became apparent to him. "The (new) name's about change and explosion, creating a new way of life," he said. "It's a positive projection."
Mormeck, 33, tolerated Bell's quirky ramblings for a solid spell, but eventually his tolerance waned. "Bell is talking a lot," he said. "He's going to have to fight. If he fights like he talks, the fight will be boring. He keeps repeating himself. He needs to get known to get respect. He should just train and not talk that much."
There was some repetitiousness in Bell's schtick, but overall, he talks a good game, and is certainly preferable to a graduate of Jockspeak U. Bell drew chuckles when, after he was asked if he enjoyed the presence of blood in his bouts, answered, "The bloodier the better. I go toe-to-toe if possible. I love this s**t, I really do."
The less jocular Mormeck portrayed himself as the idealistic antithesis to the Jamaican-born cutup: "I don't like blood, I don't like to fight, I just love to win."
Bell, who hasn't lost since his second pro fight, in 1998, scored another batch of chuckles when he complimented the physically gifted Mormeck, who possesses Balco-esque traps. "A boxer should be a physical specimen," Bell said. "I'm a specimen myself. It excites me, the bigger the better. He can put on another fifty pounds I'll still accept the challenge. He can pump steroids and I'll accept the fight."
No one touched that one.
I won't hazard a guess on who wins, but score the call for O'Neil "Funny As Hell" Bell.
Das Schwergewicht in der jetzigen Verfassung bräuchte dringend "Aufsteiger".