Jean-Marc Mormeck

Jean-Marc Gilbert Mormeck (born 3 June 1972) is a French former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2014. He is a two-time unified world cruiserweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC and The Ring world titles twice between 2005 and 2007. He was the first boxer to hold unified cruiserweight title since Evander Holyfield in 1988, and the first fighter to hold The Ring cruiserweight title since Carlos De León in 1987. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's top 10 cruiserweight from 2001 to 2005 and in 2007, and was ranked No.1 in 2003 and 2004. Mormeck also challenged for the unified world heavyweight title in 2012.

Early life Mormeck was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe as an only child to Fulbert and Sonia Mormeck. When he was 6, he and his family moved to Paris, France, where he still lives. Mormeck engaged himself in football and Muay Thai as an amateur. After watching some boxing matches on television, he became inspired to excel in it.

Professional career 1990–1998: early career He fought as an amateur in 1990 and turned professional in 1995. Early in his career, Mormeck lost 2 minor four-round bouts on points but kept winning for years afterwards. On 10 November 1998, Mormeck won the French light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision win over Alain Simon. He defended that title three times before relinquishing it.

2002–2006: first world title and unification bouts

Later, Mormeck captured the WBA cruiserweight title by a 9th-round technical knockout win over Virgil Hill on 23 February 2002. Following three defenses with wins over Dale Brown, Alexander Gurov and Virgil Hill again, he added the WBC cruiserweight crown to his collection on 2 April 2005, by way of unanimous decision over Wayne Braithwaite.

However, Mormeck lost his WBA and WBC cruiserweight titles to O'Neil Bell after being knocked out in the 10th round. This bout, on 7 January 2006, was for the undisputed (WBA/WBC/IBF) cruiserweight championship.

2007: regaining cruiserweight titles

In their rematch, Mormeck regained the WBA and WBC titles back from Bell (Bell lost the IBF title over a dispute from the organization) by unanimous decision on 17 March 2007.

In the first defense of his second title reign, Mormeck lost his WBA, WBC and lineal cruiserweight titles as he was bested by mandatory challenger and knockout specialist David Haye on 10 November 2007. Mormeck was dropped heavily in the 7th round after being hit by a strong right from Haye. Although Mormeck rose up just in time, the referee realized that he was dazed and in no condition to go on, which caused the contest to be stopped and Haye winning the fight by knockout.

2009–2010: heavyweight On 17 December 2009, Mormeck made his return to the ring after a two-year layoff, fighting for the first time as a heavyweight, against Vinny Maddalone. He outpointed the veteran heavyweight over 8 rounds.

Mormeck fought Uzbek heavyweight and WBA #7 Timur Ibragimov (30–3–1, 16 KOs) on 2 December 2010, at Halle Carpentier, Paris. Mormeck started slowly but dominated the middle rounds to win a split decision (116–112, 116–111, 113–115).

2012: Mormeck vs. Klitschko In October 2011, Mormeck was signed to fight unified Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko on 10 December 2011 at Esprit Arena, Düsseldorf, Germany until Klitschko pulled out after having a kidney stone removed on 2 December 2011. The fight was postponed to 3 March 2012. In this fight, Mormeck attempted to be only the third cruiserweight champion to win a world title at Heavyweight, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye. However, he was defeated by fourth round KO.

Return to cruiserweight and retirement Following another extended layoff, Mormeck returned to the ring in June 2014 against Tamas Lodi of Hungary. Despite his early stoppage win, Mormeck openly expressed weariness for the fight game following the match, calling for a quick title shot before he could put an end to his career.

Instead, Mormeck had to get through a fight with former EBU champion Mateusz Masternak, which he lost via majority decision. As he had promised before each of his final two fights, he retired following his defeat.

Trivia Before his first encounter with O'Neil Bell, Mormeck had no nickname, so he asked his fans to come up with one. He did not know that the fans had selected the moniker "The Marksman" until it was announced at the fight. Mormeck made one appearance in a French television talk-show called "Tout le monde en parle" to raise his mainstream profile.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes43Loss37–6Mateusz Masternak105 Dec 201442Win37–5Tamas LodiTKO4 (10)26 Jun 201441Loss36–5Wladimir KlitschkoKO4 (12), 3 Mar 201240Win36–4Timur IbragimovSD122 Dec 201039Win35–4Fres OquendoUD106 May 201038Win34–4Vinny MaddaloneUD817 Dec 200937Loss33–4David HayeTKO7 (12), 10 Nov 200736Win33–3O'Neil BellUD1217 Mar 200735Win32–3Sebastian HillTKO4 (10), 8 Jul 200634Loss31–3O'Neil BellKO10 (12), 7 Jan 200633Win31–2Wayne BraithwaiteUD122 Apr 200532Win30–2Virgil HillUD1222 May 200431Win29–2Alexander GurovTKO8 (12), 1 Mar 200330Win28–2Dale BrownTKO8 (12)10 Aug 200229Win27–2Virgil Hill9 (12), 23 Feb 200228Win26–2Franklin EdmondsonPTS88 Oct 200127Win25–2Vinson DurhamTKO2 (8)4 Aug 200126Win24–2Antonio Fernando Caldas Jr.TKO3 (8)14 May 200125Win23–2Valeriy VykhorTKO3 (10)3 Apr 200124Win22–2Juan Carlos ViloriaTKO10 (12)29 Jan 200123Win21–2Livin CastilloTKO3 (12), 16 Dec 200022Win20–2Jerry WilliamsTKO6 (8)3 Oct 200021Win19–2Antonio Pedro QuigangaTKO2 (8)16 Sep 200020Win18–2Kostyantyn OkhreyTKO3 (8)16 May 200019Win17–2Tim HillieKO4 (8)25 Apr 200018Win16–2Jerry Williams7 (10)7 Mar 200017Win15–2Rob BleakleyTKO4 (8)15 Feb 200016Win14–2Bruce RumbolzTKO4 (10)7 Dec 199915Win13–2Pascal Warusfel1026 Oct 199914Win12–2Ganguina LarmePTS1018 May 199913Win11–2Joe StevensonTKO2 (8)2 Feb 199912Win10–2Alain Simon1010 Nov 199811Win9–2Konstantin SemerdjievTKO5 (8)13 Oct 199810Win8–2Kamel AmranePTS823 May 19989Win7–2Turan BagciPTS820 Jan 19988Win6–2Kalin StoyanovTKO7 (8)20 Dec 19977Win5–2Juan NelongoTKO3 (6)5 Nov 19976Win4–2Harri HakulinenPTS624 Jun 19975Loss3–2Dominique MansarePTS613 Jun 19974Loss3–1Lee Manuel OssiePTS422 May 19973Win3–0Thierry Vuillemin68 Mar 19972Win2–0Frederic GoutalTKO4 (6)19 May 19951Win1–0Pierrick Trideau1 (4)25 Mar 1995

Jean-Marc Mormeck

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