Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck beat Wayne Braithwaite in a unanimous decision on Saturday night, unifying the cruiserweight division for the first time since Evander Holyfield held all three belts in 1988.
Mormeck (31-2) won his 28th consecutive fight, outpointing Braithwaite 114-112, 115-111 and 116-110 on the judges' cards to add the WBC cruiserweight championship to the WBA title he already owned. The IBF championship is vacant.
Many of the 8,567 filed out after the last fight on the undercard, when local favorite Jose Antonio Rivera lost his WBA welterweight belt to Luis Collazo in a split decision. Among those who remained, some saluted the Frenchman with cries of "Allez, Jean-Marc!"
PHOTO: AP
"Big Truck" Braithwaite lost for the first time in 22 pro fights.
Mormeck was never in serious danger. He knocked Braithwaite down midway through the seventh round with an overhand right and a little shove to the back with his left. Braithwaite tried to clinch for the last 70 seconds of the round, but it didn't spare him from a flurry of punches leading up to the bell.
In the eighth, after Braithwaite had a point deducted for holding, he came off the ropes to connect on a few punches. But when the ninth round started Mormeck was back in control.
Before the main event, the crowd was asked for silence while the ringside bell tolled 10 times in memory of Pope John Paul II.
Junior middleweight Roman Karmazin beat former champion Keith Holmes in a 12-round decision on the undercard. Karmazin won on two judges' cards and the third scored it a draw.
Also on the undercard, former WBA champion Lou Del Valle took a unanimous decision from light heavyweight Dan Sheehan; welterweight Miguel Angel Rodriguez stopped Luis Maysonet in the fourth round, and featherweight Elio Rojas took a unanimous decision from Angelo Torres.
Shortly after his death two years ago, Kid Gavilan's body was buried in a common plot at a west Miami cemetery.
For a loyal group of ex-fighters and other boxing fans, that simply wasn't good enough for the 1950s-era welterweight champion. In a 15-year pro career, the Cuban native had 107 wins, 30 defeats and six draws with 28 knockouts.
Gavilan was reburied on Saturday in a separate area of Our Lady of Mercy cemetery -- with a new 1m2 headstone.
It took about US$13,000 to exhume the body and pay for the new headstone. Much of the money was raised by the Ring 8 Veteran's Boxers Association of New York.
"When we first heard about where he was buried, we knew we had to do something," said Tony Mazzarella, the group's secretary-treasurer. "The plot had only a small plastic inscription. The Kid deserved better."
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson donated US$5,000 to cover the cost of the headstone, Mazzarella said. About 100 people attended the ceremony, including former world lightweight champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
Born Gerardo Gonzalez, Gavilan died Feb. 13, 2003, at the age of 77.
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