Le Noble Art
(Our man in Paris, the one and only Madsear, sends his report of the Mormeck/Bell donnybrook from last Saturday.)
We arrived at 7.40 pm at the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan of Levallois-Perret and the atmosphere was electrifying. The palace was already packed and it was difficult to find nice places to fit us all. After a few minutes and a few smiles, our ladies snagged us six seats next to each other. We sat down and began to enjoy the festivities, beginning with a little rugby action (the last game of the Rugby VI Nations, Wales vs England), moving on to the French welterweight championship (Brice Faraji over Anthony Gaillet) and the European light heavyweight championship between Frenchman Christophe Canclaux and Spaniard Jaume Pons. What a fight this last bout was - in his first bout out of Spain, Pons promised he would not go down, and he made good on it, taking a world of punishment. By the end of the fight everybody was torn between their chauvinism and the fact that the underdog was actually worth rooting for. Canclaux won a unanimous decision, but it was an excellent fight and an excellent appetizer for the night's big event.
Before the Canclaux fight, the atmosphere heated up when the speaker announced that the fighters were now both in the building, and the giant screens cut to a live feed from the locker rooms. The crowd immediately started chanting "Mormeck, Mormeck....". Once the Canclaux fight was over, that energy boiled over. World Champ Souleymane Mbaye passed us by in a very sharp suit and I screamed "Souly..." like the groupie I am and he shook my hand. He looked extra happy and didn't seem too marked by his battle last week in Liverpool. Jean-Claude Bouttier hugged him and they both sat at the Canal+ table for a pre-fight interview.
A few actors were shown on the big screen, all seeming bored out of their minds. The card girls were being chatted up by some rapper when the lights are dimmed and Don King nearly blinds half the crowd with an amount of ice I haven't seen since Jay-Z's last show. The song by 357 entitled "Sur Le Ring" starts blasting and at some point you hear "Voila Mormeck, t'es mort mec...(here's Mormeck, you're dead homie...)" and the crowd goes wild. A very heavy-set man (who later turned out to be Richie Giachetti, ex-trainer of Larry Holmes) follows as the West Indian enters the ring the crowd goes berserk.
We wait a few for Jean-Marc to get set when Bell starts his walk-in abd Sizzla's "Solid as a Rock" comes through the speakers. Not in its original version mind you but in the remixed form made popular by Ja Rule's song "The Crown". "They can't keep a good man down, Always keep a smile when they want me to frown, Keep the vibes and i stood my ground, They will never ever take my crown....". The choice was so corny that it made me want even more for Mormeck to be the 50 Cent to his Ja Rule. Supernova enters the Palais and everybody started booing like I've never seen someone get booed before. He didn't seem to mind, kept a big grin on his face.
The fight itself was an oddity. Mormeck started this one like the one before, attacking relentlessly and trying to hurt his opponent as much as he wanted. After a nice first round, the fight was headed for the No Mas Hall of Fame, two highly skilled pugilists getting it on as you rarely see anymore in the heavier categories. The Frenchman was trying to put his opponent under pressure but Bell semed unfazed by his many attempts at knocking him out, even answering some of Mormeck's ferocious punches with a smile.
For the next four rounds, it was blow for blow and the two champions were giving us a show far superior to the one they offered us in NY a year ago. The whole house stood up when it seemed like Bell was about to hit the canvas in the fourth, but like the great champ he is, he let Mormeck exhaust himself and went to his corner behind point-wise but clearly in better physical shape then JMM.
Arrives the sixth round. Two very strange things happen. Everybody is loving Mormeck and I seem to be the only one in my vicinity to remember that the same tactics got him in trouble the last time he used it. He starts the round like a beast and looks like he intends to finish the fight immediately because it becomes obvious that the energy discharge is taking its toll on him. But something horrible happens. The last minute of the round is a very strange throwback to the Madison Square Garden last year. Bell shows why he holds the belts and literally punishes Mormeck at the end, sends him to his corner staggering.
That minute's rest and maybe the very surprising fact that the speaker started announcing the judges' markings and who they were in favor of ("74-78 Mormeck, 74-78 Mormeck, 74-79 Mormeck") were both crucial factors for the end of the fight. Mormeck changed strategies and started running from Bell Prince Naseem-style. Hitting once or twice and putting himself out of reach to both breathe and push his opponent to come fight him. It was strange, very unsportsmanlike as well. Everybody stood up when Bell went down believing he had been knocked down but it was a low blow on Mormeck's part. The crowd kept rooting for Mormeck until the end even as his permanent running rendered the end of the fight unwatchable. He had his 4 points advantage and intended to keep it that way. He won by an Unanimous Decision in a fight that he deserved to win, but the ending blew away the potential of this confrontation to be a 2007 FoY contender.
As Mormeck was holding his belts, Souleymane Mbaye joined him on the ring and the two French World champs greeted the crowd as a very enthusiastic Don King kept screaming "Vive la France, Vive Jean-Marc Mormeck...", holding 17 mini-flags and sporting the ugliest denim jacket known this side of the Atlantic.
The fight didn't end there as it seems JMM and Bell started fighting again at the press conference when Bell shouted at him that he was "Facticious" and that he should be ashamed of himself and that he, Bell, was still the real champ. That altercation took place after the fight and seems to be a great setting for the third bout, the one that we ironically call in french "La Belle"...
We arrived at 7.40 pm at the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan of Levallois-Perret and the atmosphere was electrifying. The palace was already packed and it was difficult to find nice places to fit us all. After a few minutes and a few smiles, our ladies snagged us six seats next to each other. We sat down and began to enjoy the festivities, beginning with a little rugby action (the last game of the Rugby VI Nations, Wales vs England), moving on to the French welterweight championship (Brice Faraji over Anthony Gaillet) and the European light heavyweight championship between Frenchman Christophe Canclaux and Spaniard Jaume Pons. What a fight this last bout was - in his first bout out of Spain, Pons promised he would not go down, and he made good on it, taking a world of punishment. By the end of the fight everybody was torn between their chauvinism and the fact that the underdog was actually worth rooting for. Canclaux won a unanimous decision, but it was an excellent fight and an excellent appetizer for the night's big event.
Before the Canclaux fight, the atmosphere heated up when the speaker announced that the fighters were now both in the building, and the giant screens cut to a live feed from the locker rooms. The crowd immediately started chanting "Mormeck, Mormeck....". Once the Canclaux fight was over, that energy boiled over. World Champ Souleymane Mbaye passed us by in a very sharp suit and I screamed "Souly..." like the groupie I am and he shook my hand. He looked extra happy and didn't seem too marked by his battle last week in Liverpool. Jean-Claude Bouttier hugged him and they both sat at the Canal+ table for a pre-fight interview.
A few actors were shown on the big screen, all seeming bored out of their minds. The card girls were being chatted up by some rapper when the lights are dimmed and Don King nearly blinds half the crowd with an amount of ice I haven't seen since Jay-Z's last show. The song by 357 entitled "Sur Le Ring" starts blasting and at some point you hear "Voila Mormeck, t'es mort mec...(here's Mormeck, you're dead homie...)" and the crowd goes wild. A very heavy-set man (who later turned out to be Richie Giachetti, ex-trainer of Larry Holmes) follows as the West Indian enters the ring the crowd goes berserk.
We wait a few for Jean-Marc to get set when Bell starts his walk-in abd Sizzla's "Solid as a Rock" comes through the speakers. Not in its original version mind you but in the remixed form made popular by Ja Rule's song "The Crown". "They can't keep a good man down, Always keep a smile when they want me to frown, Keep the vibes and i stood my ground, They will never ever take my crown....". The choice was so corny that it made me want even more for Mormeck to be the 50 Cent to his Ja Rule. Supernova enters the Palais and everybody started booing like I've never seen someone get booed before. He didn't seem to mind, kept a big grin on his face.
The fight itself was an oddity. Mormeck started this one like the one before, attacking relentlessly and trying to hurt his opponent as much as he wanted. After a nice first round, the fight was headed for the No Mas Hall of Fame, two highly skilled pugilists getting it on as you rarely see anymore in the heavier categories. The Frenchman was trying to put his opponent under pressure but Bell semed unfazed by his many attempts at knocking him out, even answering some of Mormeck's ferocious punches with a smile.
For the next four rounds, it was blow for blow and the two champions were giving us a show far superior to the one they offered us in NY a year ago. The whole house stood up when it seemed like Bell was about to hit the canvas in the fourth, but like the great champ he is, he let Mormeck exhaust himself and went to his corner behind point-wise but clearly in better physical shape then JMM.
Arrives the sixth round. Two very strange things happen. Everybody is loving Mormeck and I seem to be the only one in my vicinity to remember that the same tactics got him in trouble the last time he used it. He starts the round like a beast and looks like he intends to finish the fight immediately because it becomes obvious that the energy discharge is taking its toll on him. But something horrible happens. The last minute of the round is a very strange throwback to the Madison Square Garden last year. Bell shows why he holds the belts and literally punishes Mormeck at the end, sends him to his corner staggering.
That minute's rest and maybe the very surprising fact that the speaker started announcing the judges' markings and who they were in favor of ("74-78 Mormeck, 74-78 Mormeck, 74-79 Mormeck") were both crucial factors for the end of the fight. Mormeck changed strategies and started running from Bell Prince Naseem-style. Hitting once or twice and putting himself out of reach to both breathe and push his opponent to come fight him. It was strange, very unsportsmanlike as well. Everybody stood up when Bell went down believing he had been knocked down but it was a low blow on Mormeck's part. The crowd kept rooting for Mormeck until the end even as his permanent running rendered the end of the fight unwatchable. He had his 4 points advantage and intended to keep it that way. He won by an Unanimous Decision in a fight that he deserved to win, but the ending blew away the potential of this confrontation to be a 2007 FoY contender.
As Mormeck was holding his belts, Souleymane Mbaye joined him on the ring and the two French World champs greeted the crowd as a very enthusiastic Don King kept screaming "Vive la France, Vive Jean-Marc Mormeck...", holding 17 mini-flags and sporting the ugliest denim jacket known this side of the Atlantic.
The fight didn't end there as it seems JMM and Bell started fighting again at the press conference when Bell shouted at him that he was "Facticious" and that he should be ashamed of himself and that he, Bell, was still the real champ. That altercation took place after the fight and seems to be a great setting for the third bout, the one that we ironically call in french "La Belle"...
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