|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
It Took Forrest 24
Rounds To Do It
But He Finally
Outclassed Mora
By William Trillo Photo: Bret "The Threat" Newton
When Vernon Forrest met Sergio Mora
the first time almost no one gave Mora a chance to take
Vernon's 154 pound WBC strap. In fact Forrest told Jeff
Wald on a heated conference call that Mora was a
Pretender not a Contender and added, "I am gonna beat
the dog sh*t out of your boy!" Then in one of the
biggest upsets of the new Millennium, Mora lifted the
WBC 154 pound title from Forrest with a skillfully
fought unanimous decision.
That was the low light of Vernon's
storied career.
Fast forward 3 months and the same
fighters took to the ring but this time it went the way
almost every boxing expert on the planet thought it
would go the first time. Vernon Forrest, the seasoned
veteran and 4 time World Champion took it to Sergio
Mora, the season One "Contender" Champ who never really
faced any World Class competition until he met Vernon.
The lopsided unanimous
decision scores for Forrest only tell half the story.
From the opening bell Forrest
employed a nice jab that he kept sticking, feinting or
pumping into Mora's direction and it took Mora
immediately out of his game and opened him up for
numerous combinations that left Mora fighting on his
back foot for most of the night. When Mora did land, the
punches had all the effect of a guy who accumulated
only 5 KO's in his 21 victories, they did zero damage to
Vernon who looked as clean as a whistle when the fight
was over.
Forrest was hoping to get a KO in
this fight and it almost came in round 7 when Mora was
nailed by a punch that sent him reeling into the ropes.
The dive into the ropes was ruled a knockdown although
Mora and his team argued it was no such thing. At the
post fight Mora admitted he was full of B.S. and said
the Knockdown was legit. (Speaking of the post fight
press conference, I highly recommend you take 10 minutes
and watch the Forrest/Mora highlights, it's a doozy).
Call Forrest a 5 time World Champion
as he took back the WBC 154 pound strap he felt was
rightly his. For Mora, this may very well have been the
end of his 15 minutes of fame, it's hard to tell where
he will go from here.
There is talk of a third installment
but lets get real here, this is not Vazquez/Marquez,
Corrales/Castillo or Ali/Frazier...Heck, it's not very
much better than Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs Ray Sanchez
2. This is a fight between an aging warrior and an over
achieving fighter who made it big on a Realty TV show.
I highly doubt anyone wants to see
it again.
|
||||||||||||||||||
