Showtime and HBO go head to head on the first Saturday of June with each network providing intriguing cards. The HBO card, which we’ll address on a later date, features a superstar, Kelly Pavlik, 33-0 (29), against a virtual unknown, Gary Lockett, 30-1 (21), for the WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine titles. The co-main event might be a bit underrated with Daniel Ponce de Leon, 34-1 (30), defending his WBO bantamweight title against Juan Manuel Lopez, 21-0 (19). That one should steal the show on the HBO card.
But it’s the Showtime card from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut that captures my primary interest. Vernon “The Viper” Forrest, 40-2 (29), a truly talented yet somehow underrated fighter faces Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora, 20-0-1 (5). And the co-feature may possibly be the highlight of the night with WBO welterweight titlist Carlos “El Indio” Quintana, 25-1 (19), defending his crown for the first time in a rematch with former belt holder Paul “The Punisher” Williams, 33-1 (24).
Quintana won a unanimous decision over Williams in February, 115-112 and 116-112 (twice). Prior to that contest Williams had developed a reputation as “The Most Feared Man in Boxing,” and was coming off of a victory over the ever dangerous Antonio Margarito.
Then he fought 12 lackluster, sloppy rounds against an inspired Quintana, and suffered cuts over both eyes, with a particularly bad one on the right side. Williams only managed to land 20% of his 799 punches, frequently fanning the air in the ring.
Quintana used lateral movement and his flush shots landed more accurately, in fact 36% of his 596 punches thrown, and he always managed to find the right angle to throw the more meaningful leather.
After being an 8-1 favorite in the first fight, Williams is still slightly favored at about 3-2. Quintana was overlooked by odds makers in the first fight and it appears he will be again, possibly on the basis of his fifth round destruction at the hands of Miguel Cotto. But based on his career body of work and his impressive victory over Williams, Quintana has to be given the respect that he has earned.
At about 6’2”, Williams has a four inch height advantage and his 82” reach is 10” greater than Quintana. He is at his best when he punches in volume as demonstrated when he threw 1256 punches against Margarito.
But the number of punches matter little when connecting at a 20% rate. All that does is make you tired and enable your opponent to take risks.
In the first fight four months ago Williams was a stationary target who failed to use his huge reach advantage, or angles or head movement, or anything actually, to avoid incoming fire. The 31 year old Quintana managed to take Williams out of his game early, fighting intelligently and backing his opponent off with hard counter shots.
There are still questions to be answered. Did Williams simply suffer an uncharacteristic off night? After all, he’s only 26 and he’s still the most physically gifted, athletic performer at 147. Or was it that Quintana just had the right antidote for Williams’ skills, fighting a smart fight against his tall, lanky opponent as he made his opponent miss while he landed the more meaningful shots whenever Williams came out with urgency?
I’m going with Quintana to reprise his decision victory.
Former “Contender” champion Sergio Mora has fought as a middleweight throughout his career, but he is dropping to 154 to challenge belt holder Vernon Forrest for the WBC light middleweight title. Aside from that minor twist, Mora’s participation is based on his name recognition from the reality show.
Two fights ago, last October, Mora was held to a draw by Elvin Ayala in his own hometown of LA. It had to be considered a huge step backward since Mora had recently turned down an opportunity to challenge then middleweight champion Jermain Taylor. This past January he returned to score a rare TKO in six over Rito Ruvalcaba.
But the fact is that Mora is a borderline talent who beat a few guys who were every bit as average as he is and won $1 million on a reality show. A close look at his career record shows that he has never fought anyone above “C” fighter level, and that’s being generous.
Since “The Contender” had its first season on NBC, fighters such as Mora, Alfonso Gomez, Peter Manfredo Jr., Jesse Brinkley, and Ishe Smith have reaped the rewards of prime time network recognition, and so have earned a nice living as fighters, though there’s not a legitimate true talent in the bunch.
By turning down a shot at Taylor, supposedly because he thought that the venue of Memphis was too close to Taylor’s home of Little Rock, Mora left himself wide open for speculation that his decision was based purely on cowardice.
Forrest, on the other hand, is the personification of courage and perseverance. He’s often fought as a one handed fighter as injuries dating back to 1994 finally resulted in a two year layoff from 2003 to 2005. Forrest endured two surgeries for a rotator cuff injury to his left arm and a surgery on his left elbow to remove bone fragments.
Prior to the layoff he had lost two fights to Ricardo Mayorga, the second a disputed majority decision, and was receiving 10 cortisone shots in his shoulder and 10 in his elbow. By this time the treatment still didn’t kill the pain.
After the pain, the surgeries, the rehab, and the therapists, Forrest returned in July 2005 and has since won five straight and a belt. When he first returned, Forrest said that he felt similarly to a big league baseball pitcher who was sent to the minors. He fought capable fighters but he knew he wasn’t at his peak. But he took those fights to get back to form, and gradually fought his way back to being a world class champion once again.
Last July, Vernon defeated Carlos Baldomir to win the vacant WBC 154 pound title.
At 37, Forrest is back on top and seems to have regained the majority of the skills that enabled him to twice defeat Shane Mosley. One might hope that after his long climb back to prominence, he would be rewarded with a mega fight to further cement his legacy and provide additional long term financial security.
Sergio Mora is not that fight, and Forrest is a 5-1 favorite.
My feeling is that Mora will end up wishing that he had fought Jermain Taylor instead. My only fear is that Forrest will be facing a rabbit in ring trunks on June 7, and will be chasing Sergio for 12 boring rounds before winning a unanimous decision.