In an effort to shine light on the long ignored and forgotten cruiserweight division, the first unification bout in 18 years was set to take place this Saturday in Worcester, Massachusetts. Wayne Braithwaite, the reigning WBC champion, put his undefeated record on the line against the hard punching Jean-Marc Mormeck the current WBA champion.

The fight began largely as expected with Braithwaite staying on the outside using his longer reach and boxing skills to dominate Mormeck. However, it did not take long for Mormeck to regain his composure as he put tremendous and unrelenting pressure on Braithwaite forcing him against the ropes where his hard right hands were able to do considerable damage. While on the outside Braithwaite seemed to dominate but his inability to keep Mormeck from walking his way inside caused him to take some heavy blows in the middle rounds of the fight.

After a strong start by Braithwaite the strength and constant pressure of Mormeck began to wear down his opponent who seemed unable to stay off the ropes. It was clearly visible that the heavier shots of Mormeck were doing most of the damage in the fight, although Braithwaite continued an unrelenting assault to the body hoping to slow down the heavy handed Mormeck. For the first half of the fight neither fighter appeared to be clearly dominating because while Mormeck landed the harder shots Braithwaite was the more active fighter.

In round 7 the momentum shifted in favor of Mormeck who was able to score a knockdown with a chopping right hand to Braithwaite's temple. The knockdown came early in the round but Mormeck did not take advantage of the opportunity to end the fight, as he let Braithwaite continuously tie him up on the inside. In round 8 Braithwaite -who still appeared to not have fully recovered from the knockdown in the previous round- continued to hold and as a result received a one point deduction after several previous warning from the referee for holding. In the same round Braithwaite also received a cut above his left eye that appeared to be the result of a Mormeck right hand but was ruled as an accidental head-butt. In any case the cut had no effect on the outcome of the fight whatsoever.

The pace of the fight became stagnant in the last four rounds as Mormeck, visibly tired, became more passive and was content to just stay away from Braithwaite for the remainder of the fight having already built up a considerable advantage on the scorecards. Braithwaite did little to take advantage of a tired opponent, as he threw too few punches to have a chance of hurting Mormeck in any way. In round 12 Braithwaite did very little despite needing a knockout to win, while Mormeck simply moved around on the outside landing a few right hands but mostly just trying to stay away and not take any chances.

The final result came as no surprise as Mormeck won a clear cut unanimous decision (114-112, 115-111, 116-110)

The fight began in an exciting fashion with both fighters dominating in spots and for a while it looked like the cruiserweight division might get a chance to shine. However, as the fight progressed the pace significantly declined and became even more stagnant in the championship rounds. Both fighters had chances to try and finish the fight, Mormeck had a chance in the 7th round after the knockdown and Braithwaite had a chance to test Mormeck in the later stages of the fight as he grew visibly tired. Overall not a bad start in an effort to revive the cruiserweight division but still leaves a lot to be desired. On a final note, I could not believe that this was the first unification bout in 18 years for the cruiserweight division. Perhaps a lack of competitive fights is the reason for its considerable decline? Never the most exciting division to begin with, this problem was only exacerbated further by the fact that there were no unification fights in almost two decades. This in itself is an obvious problem and the first step should be as always to provide the most exciting fights and only then will the fans maybe take notice.