By Jim Dower: Former WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio “Latin Snake” Mora (22-1-2, 6 KO’s) is taking on what could be a very dangerous fight for him when he faces the hard hitting Bryan Vera (17-5, 11 KO’s) in a 10 round bout on ESPN tonight at the Convention Center, in Forth Worth, Texas. Mora, 30, needs to win and look good so that he can make up for his last performance on network television when he spent too much time running and holding against Shane Mosley and had to settle for a disappointing 12 round draw in September 2010.

The fight was a very winnable one for Mora, but he gave away too many crucial rounds by electing to hold, wrestle and run rather than punch with Mosley. By the time that Mora finally did open up with his arsenal, the fight in the last two rounds and there wasn’t enough time to make up for the close rounds.

Mora hasn’t been all that active since losing his World Boxing Council junior middleweight title to Vernon Forrest in a rematch in September 2008. Indeed, Mora has fought only twice since then, as he wasted a lot of time trying to get a fight with WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik that never happened.

Mora still has his skills intact and looks as good now as he did when he held the WBC title, but he needs to get busy and starting fight much more often from here on out.

Vera’s once promising career has hit a serious decline in the past three years, as he’s lost four out of his last five bouts coming into tonight’s fight with Mora. Granted, Mora has lost to nothing but quality fighters like James Kirkland, Craig McEwan, Isaac Rodriguez and Maksym Bursak. However, the fact remains that Vera is losing much more than he’s winning and that’s not a good thing for him coming into tonight’s bout against a skilled fighter like Mora.