A third fight is absolutely necessary

Jean Marc Mormeck W12 O'Neil Bell... Who needs the heavyweight division when you have Jean Marc Mormeck and O'Neil Bell? In a breathtaking war fought at a breakneck pace, the two best cruiserweights in the world surpassed their first meeting, which in itself was a great fight. This time, however, Mormeck was able to marshall just enough strenghth to withstand Bell's late charge. There were no knockdowns, and the official scores were, 116-112 and 115-113 (twice) for Mormeck, who has now regained the world cruiserweight championship. Perhaps the two biggest mysteries in boxing are 1) how can Bell withstand a superhuman amount of punishment, and 2) how the hell did HBO and Showtime let the rematch of one of 2006 fights of the year slip through their corporate fingers? HBO and Showtime's loss was MSG's gain, as the network's last minute buy is now a 2007 fight of the year candidate.

In his home country (France), Mormeck fought like a young Evander Holyfield, pressing the action and landing big punches against Bell. For most of the first half of the fight, Mormeck dished out a brutal beating to Bell, just like the first fight, but Bell had his moments as well. The pace was so fast, neither boxer could possibly have been pacing themselves for the long haul. Just as the sixth round ended, however, Bell landed a huge punch that looked to have Mormeck out on his feet. MSG went to commercial, and when the telecast resumed about a minute later, Mormeck seemed fully recovered, as if a ten-minute rest was edited out.  Mormeck won the seventh and eighth rounds, and as he piled up the points, the next big question would be whether the French tank would run out of gas the way he did 14 months ago, allowing Bell to take the world cruiserweight title by late stoppage after absorbing sustained punishment. By the tenth, Mormeck's legs tired just as they did in the first fight, and Bell clearly won the round. Mormeck's legs had clearly deserted him by the championship rounds, and by the twelfth, Mormeck's walk was more of a stagger. Bell perhaps not tired, or perhaps not realizing he needed a knockout to win (despite the WBC's open scoring), seemed to hold back just a bit. With each man having a victory over the other, a third fight is a must, and likely would be the most anticipated bout in cruiserweight history. source: MSG Network