By Jason Kim: With sadness, Boxingnews24 has learned that former welterweight and light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest (41-3, 29 KO’s) was shot and killed on Saturday night during an attempted car jack in Atlanta, Georgia. Forrest, 38, was reportedly putting air into one of his tires of his Jaguar automobile at a service station when he was approached by two individuals who at gun point car jacked him, trying to take Forrest’s car.
There are reports that Forrest attempted to chase them on foot but was shot at least seven to eight times, with one of the shots to the head. Forrest also had a gun and that he shot back at his assailants before he was shot dead. At the time of the car jack, Forrest’s girlfriend’s young son was inside the car. Police believe that Forrest wasn’t known by the suspects and they had picked him out at random.
This news is especially shocking because it comes only two weeks after the death of boxer Arturo Gatti, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances in a hotel room in Brazil on July 11th.
Forrest was a stand out amateur with a record of 225-15, and fought in the 1992 Olympics for the United States. Forrest turned pro in 2002, and reeled off an impressive 35-0 record before he was finally defeated for the first time in a 3rd round stoppage by Ricardo Mayorga in January 2003. Forrest captured the vacant IBF welterweight title in May 2001 with a 12 round decision over Raul Frank.
A year later, Forrest defeated World Boxing Council welterweight champion Shane Mosley by a 12 round decision to capture his WBC title in January 2002. Forrest would defeat Mosley a second time six months later in another 12 round decision in July 2002.
However, Forrest would then lose back to back fights against Mayorga in 2003. Following that, Forrest went into the rebuilding stage of his career, reeling off three consecutive wins culminating with a 12 round decision over Carlos Baldomir to capture the WBC light middleweight title on July 28th, 2007.
Forrest would then successfully defend it one time, beating Michele Piccirillo by a 12 round decision before losing the title in a 12 round decision loss to Sergio Mora in June 2008. Forrest, who hadn’t trained properly for the fight, vowed to train harder and regain the title.
Only three months later, an in shape and motivated Forrest easily defeated Mora by a 12 round decision in their rematch on September 13th, 2008. Recently, Forrest was stripped of his WBC title on May 21st without defending it.
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