By Eric Thomas: A much rejuvenated WBC light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest (40-2, 29 KOs) will be defending his title against the light-hitting Sergio Mora (20-0-1, 5 KOs) on June 7th, at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. Mora, 27, a former participant in the NBC boxing reality TV show called The Contender, has done little to warrant this title shot against Forrest. In fact, Mora, a middleweight, isn’t ranked in the top #15 at all in the light middleweight division, which makes him an odd choice for an opponent against Forrest, since there would seem to be many other more deserving contenders in the light middleweight division that rightfully deserve more the shot against Forrest than Mora.
However, it’s obvious that Mora is getting the shot at Forrest because of his former experience on The Contender, which he fought previously on in 2004, winning the series to become The Contender series champion with wins over Ishe Smith, Jesse Brinkly and Peter Manfredo Jr. Other than that, Mora defeated Manfredo once more in a rematch in October 2005, beating him by an 8-round split decision. As meaningless as those wins were, there were some in the boxing community that thought Mora might have the talent to one day win a title in the middleweight division. Perhaps with those thoughts in mind, Mora was offered a shot at Jermain Taylor in 2007, which he turned down for some reason.