January 27, 2003
By MIKE WISE
NY Times
TEMECULA, Calif., Jan. 26 — By the time he lifted the ropes to welcome Vernon Forrest into the ring, Ricardo Mayorga had not smoked a cigarette in six weeks. He trained hard, promising to deliver the big right hand that would bring prosperity to his family in Nicaragua.
When it came — a crushing right hand to Forrest's temple with less than a minute remaining in the third round of their welterweight unification fight — Mayorga, a heavy underdog, lighted a victory cigarette in the ring and kissed his right biceps Saturday night.
Unexpectedly, dramatically, Mayorga had arrived.
For some time, boxing's middle weight classes have not had anything like Mayorga, a two-fisted, cocksure knockout artist who comes straight ahead and is willing to take 10 punches to land one.
His destruction of Forrest made many observers think back to 1985, when a relentless Marvin Hagler took all Thomas Hearns had before dropping Hearns, the lanky welterweight, in one of the great 147-pound bouts of all time.
Mayorga-Forrest was not Hagler-Hearns, mostly because neither current welterweight has drawn much curiosity outside of boxing. But for nearly three rounds at the Pechanga Resort and Casino, their vicious exchanges and the fight's pulsating end ushered the marketable Mayorga onto the sport's landscape.
"In my country, women give birth to men," Mayorga said after beating Forrest, the taller, more agile champion who had dominated Shane Mosely twice in the past year. "We know how to feel pain, we know what it's like to live in poverty. And that's where I came from."
Mayorga's victory put the World Boxing Association champion at 25-3-1 with 23 knockouts. He also captured Forrest's World Boxing Council title.
Mayorga described Forrest's attempts to hurt him as "clowning." When asked if he was hurt at any time during the fight, Mayorga replied, smiling through his Spanish translator, "After my father's beatings when I was child, nothing hurts."
Referee Marty Denkin halted the fight at 2 minutes 6 seconds of the third round after counting to nine and administering an eye test. Denkin saw clouds in Forrest's eyes, so he stopped the bout.
Forrest lost in so many ways. Suddenly, a big-money fight with Oscar De La Hoya was gone, along with Forrest's gaudy championship belt and his aura of invincibility. In less than a year he went from one of the elite fighters to another unthinking champion who let his ego get the best of him.
With four inches on Mayorga and all the reach a champion needed to keep a dangerous slugger like Mayorga at bay, Forrest, an Atlanta native who fell to 35-1, was lured into a free-swinging fight that only ends when one fighter goes groggy and drops.
He went toe-to-toe with Mayorga in the second round in a wild flurry that had the crowd of 2,250 howling approval.
The end came after a series of attempts by Mayorga to knock down Forrest. Mayorga finally caught up to him a few feet from Forrest's corner, delivering a looping overhand right hand that landed flush on Forrest's left temple and sent him reeling into the ropes. His left arm dangled as if it had fallen asleep on a cross-country flight.
Mayorga earned $400,000 for the fight, compared to a figure believed to be about $2 million for Forrest. Because Forrest has a six-fight contract with HBO and a rematch clause in the contract, he will most likely exercise his right to fight Mayorga again immediately.
Maybe members of his entourage won't pass out fliers before the bout advertising a postfight party. Perhaps next time Forrest will stay away and use his superior boxing skills to pick apart his determined counterpart.
By then, Mayorga may have ditched the reputation as a hard-hitting knucklehead who does not listen to his corner and always looks for an instant knockout. If not, at least his strong-minded ways will have resulted in another major payday — enough to buy all the cigarettes he wants after he's done training.
Afterward, the promoter Don King lauded his newest cash cow as if he were Muhammad Ali, circa 1974. He began yelling: "Where's Ricardo's mama? Mama, where are you? Come on up here!"
Mayorga's mother made it to the podium and smiled with her son, confirming all the tales of her family's poverty, and how much her son's victory meant to everyone back home in Nicaragua.
By MIKE WISE
NY Times
TEMECULA, Calif., Jan. 26 — By the time he lifted the ropes to welcome Vernon Forrest into the ring, Ricardo Mayorga had not smoked a cigarette in six weeks. He trained hard, promising to deliver the big right hand that would bring prosperity to his family in Nicaragua.
When it came — a crushing right hand to Forrest's temple with less than a minute remaining in the third round of their welterweight unification fight — Mayorga, a heavy underdog, lighted a victory cigarette in the ring and kissed his right biceps Saturday night.
Unexpectedly, dramatically, Mayorga had arrived.
For some time, boxing's middle weight classes have not had anything like Mayorga, a two-fisted, cocksure knockout artist who comes straight ahead and is willing to take 10 punches to land one.
His destruction of Forrest made many observers think back to 1985, when a relentless Marvin Hagler took all Thomas Hearns had before dropping Hearns, the lanky welterweight, in one of the great 147-pound bouts of all time.
Mayorga-Forrest was not Hagler-Hearns, mostly because neither current welterweight has drawn much curiosity outside of boxing. But for nearly three rounds at the Pechanga Resort and Casino, their vicious exchanges and the fight's pulsating end ushered the marketable Mayorga onto the sport's landscape.
"In my country, women give birth to men," Mayorga said after beating Forrest, the taller, more agile champion who had dominated Shane Mosely twice in the past year. "We know how to feel pain, we know what it's like to live in poverty. And that's where I came from."
Mayorga's victory put the World Boxing Association champion at 25-3-1 with 23 knockouts. He also captured Forrest's World Boxing Council title.
Mayorga described Forrest's attempts to hurt him as "clowning." When asked if he was hurt at any time during the fight, Mayorga replied, smiling through his Spanish translator, "After my father's beatings when I was child, nothing hurts."
Referee Marty Denkin halted the fight at 2 minutes 6 seconds of the third round after counting to nine and administering an eye test. Denkin saw clouds in Forrest's eyes, so he stopped the bout.
Forrest lost in so many ways. Suddenly, a big-money fight with Oscar De La Hoya was gone, along with Forrest's gaudy championship belt and his aura of invincibility. In less than a year he went from one of the elite fighters to another unthinking champion who let his ego get the best of him.
With four inches on Mayorga and all the reach a champion needed to keep a dangerous slugger like Mayorga at bay, Forrest, an Atlanta native who fell to 35-1, was lured into a free-swinging fight that only ends when one fighter goes groggy and drops.
He went toe-to-toe with Mayorga in the second round in a wild flurry that had the crowd of 2,250 howling approval.
The end came after a series of attempts by Mayorga to knock down Forrest. Mayorga finally caught up to him a few feet from Forrest's corner, delivering a looping overhand right hand that landed flush on Forrest's left temple and sent him reeling into the ropes. His left arm dangled as if it had fallen asleep on a cross-country flight.
Mayorga earned $400,000 for the fight, compared to a figure believed to be about $2 million for Forrest. Because Forrest has a six-fight contract with HBO and a rematch clause in the contract, he will most likely exercise his right to fight Mayorga again immediately.
Maybe members of his entourage won't pass out fliers before the bout advertising a postfight party. Perhaps next time Forrest will stay away and use his superior boxing skills to pick apart his determined counterpart.
By then, Mayorga may have ditched the reputation as a hard-hitting knucklehead who does not listen to his corner and always looks for an instant knockout. If not, at least his strong-minded ways will have resulted in another major payday — enough to buy all the cigarettes he wants after he's done training.
Afterward, the promoter Don King lauded his newest cash cow as if he were Muhammad Ali, circa 1974. He began yelling: "Where's Ricardo's mama? Mama, where are you? Come on up here!"
Mayorga's mother made it to the podium and smiled with her son, confirming all the tales of her family's poverty, and how much her son's victory meant to everyone back home in Nicaragua.
