Sandgroper Sports
Watty, Scotty & Anth are Three sports mad Western Australians who are keen to profile West Aussie sportspeople, their lives and experiences in sport and outside of sport. We love hearing great human stories and we know that many others in our community do too. Sandgroper sports proudly focusses on Western Australians and takes the form of a casual discussion, where we discuss with our guests their lives in WA, what it's like being a WA athlete, what life is like outside of sport and what they think makes our state unique. Our podcasts are real life, authentic, conversations with our guests discussing how they got to where they are today, the ups and downs of their careers and what it means to be from WA.
Sandgroper Sports
Australian Heavyweight - Mark De Mori
This week's guest is renowned WA boxer – Mark De Mori. Born in WA and of Italian and Croatian heritage, he grew up in City Beach and attended John XXIII college - not the usual breeding ground of a Heavyweight Boxer, but this is not your usual story.
With his father being a renowned WA sports journalist - he was good at sports – but drawn to boxing and developed a love for the sport watching his Nonnos old VHS videos and emulating his heroes, in particular the ferocious champ Mike Tyson.
He dominated as an Amateur, so much so that he had to start fighting fully grown men while still a youth, and yet he kept winning fights.
By the age of 22 he turned professional and won a string of fights in Australia, but knew his calling was further afield. Legendary promoter Don King, who at the time ran the Heavyweight world, signed De Mori to his stable - an unbelievable situation for a kid who only ever had one dream; to be a World Heavyweight.
He has an outrageous record in his 20 plus year pro-career, has fought in some of the biggest stages and in front of huge crowds. He has been ranked as high as 7 in the world with the WBA and 15 with the WBC as well as winning the WBU and WBF world titles.
Tune in as we don’t often get a chance to sit down with Heavyweight boxers who hail from Perth WA, we unpack all aspects of heavyweight fighting … “the only boxing division in the jungle” according to Mark.
Some of the stories are hard to fathom for the uninitiated, it’s a wild ride so strap in and get to know Mark De Mori .