By Jim Dower: On February 4th, former WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio Mora (22-1-2, 6 KO’s) will be facing the hard hitting Bryan Vera (17-5, 11 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Convention Center, in Fort Worth, Texas. This fight pits two fighters that previously fought for the NBC reality television program called “The Contender.

While Mora was able to move on from that series and have a brief bit of success as the World Boxing Council light middleweight champion from June 2008 until September 2008, Vera has struggled in his career, losing to the likes of Jaidon Codrington, James Kirkland, Craig McEwan, Isaac Rodrigues and Maksym Bursak. Those are all good fighters, but Vera appears to be getting beaten easier and easier.

Two years ago, Vera got the biggest win of his career when he upset then middleweight contender/prospect Andy Lee in a 7th round TKO win in 2008. What’s followed that win has been defeats to Kirkland, McEwan, Rodrigues and Bursak. Vera still punches hard, but fighters have figured out how to beat him by out-boxing him instead of standing in front of him and trying to trade. Kirkland was one of the few that tried and succeeded at beating Vera at his own game. Mora, however, won’t likely try and mix it up with Vera and will likely move around on the outside or fight on the inside.

Mora recently fought to a 12 round draw with Shane Mosley in September. It was an ugly fight and it appeared to some boxing fans that Mora got the better of Mosley. I had Mora winning by a couple of rounds, but it wasn’t a good fight to score or watch. Mora has done very little since losing his WBC title to Vernon Forrest in a rematch in September 2008. Since then, Mora defeated Calvin Green by a 7th round TKO in April 2010 after being out of action for a year and a half. Forrest followed that win with his fight with Mosley.