Jean-Marc Mormeck
Jean-Marc Gilbert Mormeck 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. Mormeck also challenged for the unified world heavyweight title in 2012. As of April 2020, BoxRec rates him the third greatest cruiserweight of all time.
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 cruiserweight championship.
2007: regaining cruiserweight titles
In their rematch, Mormeck regained the WBA and WBC titles back from Bell 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 on 2 December 2010, at Halle Carpentier, Paris.
Mormeck started slowly but dominated the middle rounds to win a split decision.
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 the 4th - round KO.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
No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
43 | Loss | 37–6 | ![]() | 10 | 6 Dec 2014 | ![]() | ||
42 | Win | 37–5 | ![]() | TKO | 4 | 26 Jun 2014 | ![]() | |
41 | Loss | 36–5 | ![]() | KO | 4, 1:12 | 3 Mar 2012 | ![]() | For WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight titles |
40 | Win | 36–4 | ![]() | SD | 12 | 2 Dec 2010 | ![]() | Won vacant WBA International heavyweight title |
39 | Win | 35–4 | ![]() | UD | 10 | 6 May 2010 | ![]() | |
38 | Win | 34–4 | ![]() | UD | 8 | 17 Dec 2009 | ![]() | |
37 | Loss | 33–4 | ![]() | TKO | 7, 1:54 | 10 Nov 2007 | ![]() | Lost WBA, WBC, and The Ring cruiserweight titles |
36 | Win | 33–3 | ![]() | UD | 12 | 17 Mar 2007 | ![]() | Won WBA, WBC, and The Ring cruiserweight titles |
35 | Win | 32–3 | ![]() | TKO | 4, 2:32 | 8 Jul 2006 | ![]() | |
34 | Loss | 31–3 | ![]() | KO | 10, 2:50 | 7 Jan 2006 | ![]() | Lost WBA, WBC, and The Ring cruiserweight titles; For IBF cruiserweight title |
33 | Win | 31–2 | ![]() | UD | 12 | 2 Apr 2005 | ![]() | Retained WBA cruiserweight title; Won WBC and vacant The Ring cruiserweight titles |
32 | Win | 30–2 | ![]() | UD | 12 | 22 May 2004 | ![]() | Retained WBA cruiserweight title |
31 | Win | 29–2 | ![]() | TKO | 8, 0:32 | 1 Mar 2003 | ![]() | Retained WBA cruiserweight title |
30 | Win | 28–2 | ![]() | TKO | 8 | 10 Aug 2002 | ![]() | Retained WBA cruiserweight title |
29 | Win | 27–2 | ![]() | 9, 0:01 | 23 Feb 2002 | ![]() | Won WBA cruiserweight title | |
28 | Win | 26–2 | ![]() | PTS | 8 | 8 Oct 2001 | ![]() | |
27 | Win | 25–2 | ![]() | TKO | 2 | 4 Aug 2001 | ![]() | |
26 | Win | 24–2 | ![]() | TKO | 3 | 14 May 2001 | ![]() | |
25 | Win | 23–2 | ![]() | TKO | 3 | 3 Apr 2001 | ![]() | |
24 | Win | 22–2 | ![]() | TKO | 10 | 29 Jan 2001 | ![]() | Retained WBA Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title |
23 | Win | 21–2 | ![]() | TKO | 3, 2:36 | 16 Dec 2000 | ![]() | Won vacant WBA Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title |
22 | Win | 20–2 | ![]() | TKO | 6 | 3 Oct 2000 | ![]() | |
21 | Win | 19–2 | ![]() | TKO | 2 | 16 Sep 2000 | ![]() | |
20 | Win | 18–2 | ![]() | TKO | 3 | 16 May 2000 | ![]() | |
19 | Win | 17–2 | ![]() | KO | 4 | 25 Apr 2000 | ![]() | |
18 | Win | 16–2 | ![]() | 7 | 7 Mar 2000 | ![]() | ||
17 | Win | 15–2 | ![]() | TKO | 4 | 15 Feb 2000 | ![]() | |
16 | Win | 14–2 | ![]() | TKO | 4 | 7 Dec 1999 | ![]() | |
15 | Win | 13–2 | ![]() | 10 | 26 Oct 1999 | ![]() | Retained France light-heavyweight title | |
14 | Win | 12–2 | ![]() | PTS | 10 | 18 May 1999 | ![]() | Retained France light-heavyweight title |
13 | Win | 11–2 | ![]() | TKO | 2 | 2 Feb 1999 | ![]() | |
12 | Win | 10–2 | ![]() | 10 | 10 Nov 1998 | ![]() | Won France light-heavyweight title | |
11 | Win | 9–2 | ![]() | TKO | 5 | 13 Oct 1998 | ![]() | |
10 | Win | 8–2 | ![]() | PTS | 8 | 23 May 1998 | ![]() | |
9 | Win | 7–2 | ![]() | PTS | 8 | 20 Jan 1998 | ![]() | |
8 | Win | 6–2 | ![]() | TKO | 7 | 20 Dec 1997 | ![]() | |
7 | Win | 5–2 | ![]() | TKO | 3 | 5 Nov 1997 | ![]() | |
6 | Win | 4–2 | ![]() | PTS | 6 | 24 Jun 1997 | ![]() | |
5 | Loss | 3–2 | ![]() | PTS | 6 | 13 Jun 1997 | ![]() | |
4 | Loss | 3–1 | ![]() | PTS | 4 | 22 May 1997 | ![]() | |
3 | Win | 3–0 | ![]() | 6 | 8 Mar 1997 | ![]() | ||
2 | Win | 2–0 | ![]() | TKO | 4 | 19 May 1995 | ![]() | |
1 | Win | 1–0 | ![]() | 1 | 25 Mar 1995 | ![]() | Professional debut |