Haye’s personal Arc d’Triomphe in Levallois, Paris by Tom Walker Nov 11th 2007

David Haye triumphed over Jean Marc Mormeck in the Stade Marcel Cerdan in the Parisian suburb of Levallois, stopping him in the seventh round after himself being knocked down in the fourth.  Haye is the new WBA and WBC cruiserweight champion. With Frank Maloney suitably dressed in the now famous Union Jack suit by his side and trainer Adam Booth flanking him, Haye looked remarkably focused, calm and keen to get the bout underway, despite the ballyhoo which preceded the bout. Mormeck on the other hand looked anything but the adjectives above. The packed auditorium had hardly any room to spare and the press section meant that both rows of seats were so close together it was extremely difficult to even take notes. Interestingly, before the bout started, it was surprising that there were three national anthems sung, God Save the Queen, the Marsellaise and the Italian one, and there was me thinking that there were only two boxers! Until you realise that the referee was an Italian that is! Am I cynical in thinking that the organisers wanted to make him feel at home? Despite this less than subliminal welcome to Signor Cavalieri, the referee did carry out his task fairly, and the judges were superfluous in the end. Haye started the bout with confidence, spearing his jab into Mormeck, though the Frenchman did cover up well enough, relying more on the occasional hook from behind his high guard, none of which bothered Haye who frankly looked impervious to anything Mormeck could muster in the opener. Mormeck did do more pressing in the second but Haye was countering with some authority and had this one in the bag too. The third saw more action from Mormeck, and you could argue that this one was even as despite Mormeck throwing more, the heavier shots were coming from the Londoner. The fourth was undoubtedly a bad round for Haye as a left and then a right from Mormeck had him on the ropes then down for the mandatory count.  However, Haye did look reasonably clear in his eyes as he held out to the end of the round. Mormeck went in for the kill in the fifth but either didn't have the ability or the wherewithal to stifle Haye, and the Londoner was regaining his composure with every passing second. The sixth saw Mormeck change tactics and had his guard too low, which with Haye's power clear for all to see, was pretty stupid on his part. By now the points would have been fairly even, but were rendered meaningless with Haye delivering an uppercut to the shaven head of Mormeck and followed it up with a left hook and a right to the temple which had the Ox-like figure of Mormeck prostrate on the canvas. He did get up (just), but patently didn't want any more of it, and the Italian referee called it off, to the unconfined joy of the knot of supporters who'd travelled over from London to support their man, and if I have to be honest, the objectively minded members of the British press pack were likewise overjoyed. Earlier in the evening I'd speculated that the uppercut would be a potent weapon allied to the power and his height advantage over Mormeck (10 cms), and it proved to be the turning point. The show had opened with Olivier Bonine of France matched with Portugese boxer Nuno Cruz. Skill was conspicuous by its absence in this show opener and the clash of styles didn't help as Bonine is a southpaw and Cruz orthodox. The crowd were animated though, especially as they thought that Cruz was deliberately spitting out his gumshield, and I suspect they were right in that! He did it once too often and got a point deducted for his troubles in the last round. The only highlight per se was Bonine clipping Cruz in the fourth with a peach of a left hook to Cruz' head, unfortunately he declined to follow it up. The undercard had another English boxer, Steve Conway, matched up with Christophe Canclaux of Montpellier. Conway surprised the swarthy Frenchman by dishing out a stiff left which put Canclaux on his “derriere” in the opener, but that was as good as it got for Conway, as the Frenchman wasted no time and very few shots as he took control of the bout from then on. Conway got a standing count in the third and although he got up, the referee had seen enough and frankly it looked as though Conway had too. A footnote on this bout - I've never seen a boxer enter the ring wearing a suit! Canclaux did and for the life of me I can't imagine why as he had to struggle out of it for the preliminaries. “Seulement” in Paris as they say, as it is supposed to be the style capital of the world, but a suit? Mon Dieu! Richie Davis was the man in charge of the 12 rounder for some WBC title which my limited French couldn't fathom out (WBC Youth light-welterweight - Ed.). However it featured Ali Chebah who's undefeated in 22 with 16 KO's against a Brazilian, Wellington de Jesus who had 12 wins with 7 early on his slate. This was a tidy bout with Chebah looking pretty good for a 21-year-old and obviously some sort of golden boy in French eyes. He closed this out with room to spare, as Richie called it off with the Brazilian trapped in the corner and taking a fair old licking. The crowd weren't best pleased, but their man had won and convincingly to boot! The TV schedule was in tatters by now with bouts finishing early and the trend continued with a Russian named Frenchman Andrei Zaitvev coming up short in the punching stakes with a Puerto Rican Francisco Palacios, and frankly being out punched from start to finish, which happened to be a retiral on his stool at the end of the third. Palacios looked quite good for a big man, he moved well and is heavy handed with it. Souleymane M'Baye tried to resurrect his reputation post-Gavin Rees' taking his title, in an eliminator for another shot at fame and glory. His opponent was Ameth Diaz a useful Panamanian who'd had 17 KO's from his 23 wins with 6 defeats. Local boy and prodigal son M'Baye had the crowd cheering his every move which was strange since he was taking about three to give out one. Diaz had a good defence and was using it to good effect on the limited attacks he's facing from M'Baye. The Frenchman started to up his work rate in the third, especially on the inside and needless to say the volume of the totally biased crowd was increasing. The next saw M'Baye have a point deducted for his use of the head, much to the annoyance of the partisan crowd, but that in turn was quickly forgotten as the referee stopped the bout in this round, with Diaz apparently unable to defend himself. Cynically speaking, I'd have said it was from M'Baye use of the head. This wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, nor was it a harbinger of future bouts for the Frenchman. My first sojourn into French professional boxing was interesting then, but in truth Haye was the raison d'etre for this trip and he was worth it, in winning with style after the shock of being on the floor. Where now for Mormeck at 35?

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