O'Neil Bell

O'Neil Bell
Data
Birth Name	O'Neil Bell
Weight class	Cruiser weight
nationality	Jamaica
birthday	December 29, 1974
place of birth	Montego Bay
Date of death	November 25, 2015
Place of death	Atlanta , Georgia , United States
style	Left delivery
size	1.83 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	32
Victories	27
Knockout victories	25th
Defeats	4th
draw	1

O'Neil Bell (born December 29, 1974 in Montego Bay , † November 25, 2015 in Atlanta , Georgia , United States ) was a Jamaican boxer . He was world cruiserweight champion of the WBC, WBA and IBF .

Professional career

Bell started amateur boxing at the age of 20 and only played twelve fights before turning pro in 1998. In his first professional fight he defeated by a first round knockout William Holyfield, a cousin of Evander Holyfield . In his second fight, however, he had to accept his first defeat, a knockout in the fourth round by the Algerian Olympian Mohamed Benguesmia.

After a series of 22 wins, including against former world champions Arthur Williams and Kelvin Davis, and a draw, he qualified for a fight for the vacant IBF world title on May 20, 2005 against Canadian Dale Brown and won the belt a point win. He then defended the title against the South African Sebastiaan Rothmann and then united the titles of the three most important world associations (WBA, WBC, IBF) on January 7, 2006 with an early victory against the WBA and WBC world champion Jean-Marc Mormeck . Evander Holyfield was last able to do this in 1988. In March 2006 Bell complained of dental problems and therefore refused to compete against his IBF mandatory challenger Steve Cunningham . As a result, he was stripped of the IBF title, so that from now on Bell was only in possession of the WBA and WBC belts.

In March 2007 he lost in the rematch in France the WBC and WBA titles unanimously on points back to Mormeck. The fight was overshadowed by the fact that rounds were abandoned too early. A year later he lost to Tomasz Adamek by knockout and then announced his retirement from active boxing.

In a comeback attempt in 2011 he lost to Richard Hall . After a subsequent win against Rico Cason, Bell ended his career again.

Private

Bell moved to the United States with his parents when he was five . He had two brothers and two half-sisters and fathered a daughter. For religious reasons he renounced his former battle name "Give 'em Hell" and later called himself "Supernova".

O'Neil Bell was the victim of an armed robbery in November 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was found dead by the police.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Khaleda Rahman: Former boxing champion O'Neil 'Supernova' Bell dies after being shot and stabbed in armed robbery in Atlanta. In: Daily Mail , November 26, 2015 (English).

Web links

• O'Neil Bell in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Kelvin Davis	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) May 20, 2005 - March 2006	Krzysztof Włodarczyk
Jean-Marc Mormeck	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) January 7, 2006 - March 17, 2007	Jean-Marc Mormeck
Jean-Marc Mormeck	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) January 7, 2006 - March 17, 2007	Jean-Marc Mormeck