BELL

PARIS, France (CMC)

The long-awaited rematch between Jamaican O'Neil Bell and Jean-Marc Mormeck, of France, is set to take place next March in France.

Promoter Don King is booking the Levallois-Perret Centre in France for the big Bell-Mormeck clash on March 17, approximately 14 months after the two had met in a unification bout that Bell won at the famous Madison Square Garden.

Only this past week, Bell's management had issued a statement threatening legal action if Don King Productions (DKP) did not make the fight.

Bell is in danger being stripped of his world titles for failure to defend.

The 31-year-old Jamaican registered a solid 10th round knockout victory over Mormeck to win the world title triple - World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) belts - on January 7 this year at MSG.

But in April, the IBF stripped Bell of their 200-pound belt for pulling out of a mandatory bout against American Steve Cunningham because of a tooth problem.

Currently the only Caribbean man with a world boxing title, Bell had beaten Canadian Dale Brown on points for the IBF belt in May last year.

Bell's win over Mormeck in January made him the second undisputed champion ever of the division, Evander Holyfield being the first in 1988.

Bell has a ring record of 26 wins (24 knockouts) against one loss and one draw, and Mormeck has 32 wins (22 knockouts) against three defeats.

Since his loss to bell, Mormeck has had one outing, defeating Sebastien Hill on a fourth round knockout in St Louis, USA.