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By Mike C Ryan

Big time beckons Aussie Heavyweight Bound for USA to join Don

The Dominator

Super-bodied WA heavyweight, Mark de Mori is due to sign a contract with Don King Promotions if he beats Fiji champion, Mosese Kavika at the Herb Graham Leisure Centre, Mirrabooka, on Saturday, March 24.

The next day, De Mori, 25, and his Sydney-based manager, Ted Allen will fly to the States, and sit down with Don King. Allen says the world’s most famous promoter likes the prospects of the young Aussie heavyweight.

"I have a good relationship with Don King after taking Kali Meehan to America in 2004," said Allen.

"Kali signed with King and fought for the WBO world heavyweight championship.

"After Kali, I looked around for another big prospect and was impressed when I saw a tape of one of Mark’s early fights," Allen said.

"I noticed Mark had a lot of raw power. Every fight he was involved in was exciting, which is what the American audiences pay to see. Excitement."

The Mirabooka match will be de Mori’s second fight back in Perth after basing himself on the east coast to start his professional career at 22.

Now at 25 De Mori is still relatively young for a heavyweight in a division where the average age of the top four belt holders is 34.

"My dream has always been to fight on the big stage in America," said de Mori. "I have made plenty of sacrifices since I started boxing to make this happen.

"Now that the dream is becoming a reality, I am doing everything in my training to make sure I am prepared to take advantage of this opportunity"

Mark has been training with experienced boxing and kick-boxing trainer Ron Parr at his Northbridge gym.
Parr, who took world-rated middleweight boxer Daniel "The Rock" Dawson to a kick-boxing world title, says de Mori has huge potential.

"Mark is still a novice compared with the world-ranked heavyweights because he had only a short amateur career.

"Most of the world’s best heavyweights had more than a hundred amateur fights before turning pro," said Parr.

"Mark packs great power and that’s an equalizer for his lack of experience."

De Mori, dubbed "The Dominator," has lost only one of his 13 professional bouts and boasts a 90 per cent knockout ratio.

His latest fight in December saw him knock out Fijian heavyweight Fatu Tuo Tuomanono in the second round.

Also scheduled to appear on the Mirrabooka card will be Daniel "The Rock" Dawson, who has a record of 26 wins and no losses. Dawson is also trained by Ron Parr.