Vernon
Forrest doesn’t consider Sergio Mora to be much of a contender.
The WBC
light middleweight champion puts his title on the line Saturday at the Mohegan
Sun Casino in a 12-round bout against the season one winner of “The Contender”
reality TV show.
Forrest
(40-2, 29
KOs) has shown little respect for
Mora, referring to his style as “garbage” and admitted to laughing at him after
sparring with him in the past.
“I beat him
up with one arm,” Forrest said.
The
37-year-old champion has been able to back up his tough talk in the past. He
owns a pair of victories over Shane Mosley, and has won five straight fights
since dropping a pair of bouts to Ricardo Mayorga in 2003.
In 2007
Forrest won a unanimous decision against Carlos Baldomir by a lopsided 118-109,
116-111, 118-109 on the cards to win the vacant WBC light middleweight title.
He defended the title in December with an 11th round TKO of Italian Michele
Piccirillo.
On the
other hand, Mora (20-0-1, 5
KOs) has not
fought a high level of competition. The 27-year-old is coming off a sixth-round
knockout of Rito Ruvalcaba in a bout where he was behind on two of the judges’
cards at the time of the stoppage.
Prior to
that bout, Mora earned a controversial draw with Elvin Ayala, a result most
thought should have gone easily yo Ayala.
“It’s
definitely a big step up for me, but I think it’s time for me to take that
step,” Mora said. “If you look at my last 10 opponents, they have 80 to 90
percent winning records.
“I may not
deserve this title shot, but as far as me being a formidable fighter, I’ve
proven myself against different opposition that would prove that I actually do
have a chance against Forrest.”
Still,
Forrest waved off any upset talk.
“There
won’t be an upset Saturday,” the champion said. “Trust me on that. You can
forget about that (expletive).”
Saturday’s
undercard is highlighted by the 12-round welterweight bout between WBO
titleholder Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) and Carlos Quintana (25-1, 19
KOs).
Williams,
26, took the title from
Mexico’s
Antonio Margarito by decision last July and will be making his first title
defense.
Quintana’s
only loss was to current WBA welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto. Both of these fights will be in the fantasy league, get your prediction in before fight time!
