By Jim Dower: Having seen the first between these two fighters, I can’t go along with the logic that former World Boxing Council light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest )40-3, 29 KOs) was just having an off night when he lost a 12-round majority decision to then challenger undefeated Sergio Mora (21-0-1, 5 KOs) in June. It appeared to me that the 37 year-old Forrest just got old overnight and met up with someone with a crafty style, better work rate and the ability to move around the ring to force Forrest to use his old legs.
I’ve heard numerous excuses as to why Forrest lost the fight, from he was over-trained to he was under-trained for the bout. However, I can’t see how the outcome will be any different no matter how hard Forrest trains for the fight. Mora is simply too fast, too active and is an excellent inside fighter, which is where he was able to score often against Forrest and win rounds. I frankly don’t even see this as an age issue, for I think Mora would have beaten Forrest no matter how old he was at the time. Mora’s style of fighting – constant movement, using a lot of fakes, jabbing constantly, and throwing short double and triple hooks on the inside – is a nightmarish style for Forrest, one that I don’t see him solving ever.
The scoring for the first fight was pretty much off from what I saw of the fight. I had Mora winning handily nine rounds to three. I gave Forrest rounds one, two and five, with the rest all going to Mora.
The only reason that Forrest won the first two rounds, however, is that Mora started out cautiously, using this time to study Forrest’s style. Mora threw few punches in either of the first two rounds because of this. After he had him figured out, it was all Mora for the rest of the way. Forrest seemed to be making the mistake of loading up with all of his shots, as if he was under the impression that he could hurt Mora with a big shot and possibly take him out.
Forrest’s trainer Buddy McGirt constantly advised him to stop loading up with his shots and start boxing him more. However, I saw no indication whatsoever that he was following his trainers’ advise, as Forrest continued throwing bombs for the rest of the way, causing him to be badly out-worked by the more active Mora.
Forrest looked like the fighter of old in the first two rounds, pressing the action and landing big shots with hooks, right hands and uppercuts. Mora, however, failed to take the bait, refusing to slug it out with him and stayed on the move constantly. The ringside crowd was already booing by the second round.
By the 3rd round, Forrest was already tired-looking, and stood around as Mora boxed circles around him hitting him with jabs and left hands. Mora often switched between orthodox and southpaw, which seemed to confuse the tired out Forrest even more.
The last round in which Forrest looked decent was in the 5th, when he landed some good right hands at the start of the round. In the second half, though, Mora took over and hit him with a lot of fast punches to the head and body. The crowd hated all the movement from Mora, and booed often, perhaps hoping it would cause him to want to stop and trade shots with Forrest. Mora was too smart for that and continued moving well and hitting on the run.
It was around this time that Mora seemed to realize that Forrest was ineffective on the inside, and he took advantage of this by hitting him as often as he could with short left hands. Even when Forrest had him in a clinch, Mora would work his left hand free and batter Forrest repeatedly with fast hooks to the head and body. After a couple of rounds of this, there should have been some adjustments made by Forrest to try and prevent Mora from outworking him on the inside. Ideally, Forrest should have avoided getting in close with Mora altogether, because he didn’t have the skills to compete with Mora in close.
At the start of the 6th round, Mora hurt Forrest with a big right hand to the head. He then went after him, hitting him with a blizzard of shots while Forrest, looking incredibly old, covered up and tried to block the shots. Thought Forrest recovered and landed a couple of good right hands later in the round, he continued to take a lot of punishment from the younger 27 year-old Mora.
For the remainder of the fight, Mora totally dominated the action, hitting Forrest at will on the inside and jabbing him silly and landing a lot of hooks on the outside. Forrest was exhausted and spent by the 7th round, and walked around like a mummy until the end of the bout. His exhaustion had nothing to do with his age or lack of conditioning, however; Forrest was tired out because Mora made him work much harder than he’s ever been forced to in his career.
None of Forrest’s other opponents ever had the energy and movement of Mora. Sure, Ricardo Mayorga had a better work rate than Mora, but he didn’t move around the ring like Mora, nor did he have the excellent inside work that Mora showed against Forrest.
I see Mora doing pretty much the same thing he did last time out, only this time I see him starting much earlier in the fight and not giving away the first couple of rounds to him. Mora is simply a much better boxer than Forrest, and his style is just all wrong for him. Forrest would have been better served, perhaps, if he had moved in another direction and attempted to challenge one of the other junior middleweight champions like Daniel Santos, Verno Phillips or Sergeii Dzinziruk.