1. Home
  2. Sports
  3. Boxing
Andrew Eisele

Andrew's Boxing Blog

By Andrew Eisele, About.com Guide to Boxing

Mora Shocks Forrest!

Saturday June 7, 2008
Sergio Mora graduated from "The Contender" to champion with a majority decision over WBC junior middleweight champion Vernon Forrest. Forrest got the better of Mora in the early rounds but slowed down as the fight wore on. He may have taken Mora too lightly or perhaps, at 37, he's simply not the fighter he used to be. After the fight, Forrest attributed his sluggishness to being "just flat the whole night". Whatever the reason, Forrest looked old and tired. Two judges had the fight for Mora (116-112 and 115-113), while the third had it a draw (114-114).

Mora's win is the biggest for any fighter from "The Contender" series and proves he belongs in the ring with world class fighters. Predictably, Mora called out Oscar De La Hoya - who is in the market for an opponent - after the fight. Forrest said he plans to go back to the drawing board and will continue his career.

On the undercard, Paul Williams won back the WBO welterweight title with a first round TKO of Carlos Quintana. When they met in February, Quintana outworked Williams for a unanimous decision shocker. Williams wasn't about to let the same thing happen this time and came out aggressively from the opening bell. Williams dropped Quintana with a flurry midway through the first. Quintana got to his feet but only lasted another 18 seconds before another flurry put him down again. Referee Eddie Claudio waved off the fight as soon as Quintana went down for the second time.

After the fight, Williams said he'd like to fight Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Comments

June 8, 2008 at 11:01 am
(1) Haggisdog says:

I wasn’t sure what to make of this fight, Forrest has never really achieved the success I expected after his dominance of Mosley and the Contender has never been able to produce anything more than Tier B fighters. However, this was a good fight and Mora really demonstrated how he’s matured and I agree he is definitely a world class fighter now. The Delahoya fight seems like a natural given Oscar’s connection to the Contender and Mora probably wouldn’t have a long recovery period afterward given Mora’s lack of KO power.

June 8, 2008 at 11:32 am
(2) BenWiser says:

I thought this decision was a bit of BS. I wanted to see Mora do well, but not get handed a championship.

June 8, 2008 at 11:45 am
(3) noirnoticvibe says:

congrats to Mora obviously he’s been working on his stamina which he has too i mean he only has 5 ko’s but he has to fight a B+ or maybe a A fighter next not an A+ just make sure it was’nt catching Forrest on his way down…i’d like for him to meet up with Maragito they had a grueling sparring session against each other…Maragito was catching him with hard clean shots and he was actually suprising Maragito with quick combo’s….

June 15, 2008 at 11:10 pm
(4) Mike Wicks says:

Mora surprised me I really expected Forest to win handily. Hope Vernon does not continue to long and tarnish his legacy. I believe he would be an excellent coach. Congrats to Mr Mora on his fine showing

December 26, 2008 at 12:41 pm
(5) saladooq says:

let oscar retire. what? i know he draws money but damn, build your own fanbase. i can see it now, oscar’s 60 years old and boxers still are saying, “i want oscar”!

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Explore Boxing

About.com Special Features

Holiday Central

What to eat, where to go, fun things to do and how to save money on the perfect gifts. More >

Introduction to Pilates

Learning Pilates fundamentals can help you get the most out of your exercise regime. More >

  1. Home
  2. Sports
  3. Boxing

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.