Ten years younger than his opponent, Mora (21-0-1, 5 KOs) outworked
the 37-year-old Forrest (40-3) in the latter half of the match. The Los
Angeles native received scores of 115-113 and 116-112, while the third
judge had the bout even at 114-114.
“I just couldn’t get off,” Forrest said. “He has a herky-jerky style
that threw me off. He fought a very good fight, a really technical
fight and he was the better man tonight.”
After controlling the
first half of the fight, Forrest appeared winded, allowing Mora to
dominate from the sixth round on. The challenger constantly used his
jab to set up body shots, gaining more and more confidence as the bout
progressed.
“I had no game plan,” Mora admitted. “You can’t plan against Vernon.
I came to win. I wasn’t going to be denied. … Once I got to the seventh
round, I wasn’t going to let him win another round.”
Mora clearly was the fresher fighter in the 12th round, as Forrest
obviously was tired and battered by the time the final bell rang.
However, the newly crowned champion believes he has plenty on which to
improve.
“I got a lot more in me,” Mora said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. No disrespect to Vernon, this was a C-plus (effort).”
Leading up to the fight, Forrest showed little respect for Mora,
referring to his style as “garbage” after laughing while sparring with
him on previous occasions. But Forrest definitely was not laughing on
Saturday night.
“It was all business,” Forrest said of his antics. “Nothing personal.”
On the undercard, Paul Williams avenged the only loss of his career
in impressive fashion, regaining his WBO welterweight title with a
first-round technical knockout of Carlos Quintana.
The 26-year-old
southpaw wasted little time in his second chance against the Puerto
Rican, knocking down Quintana with a flurry that culminated with a left
hook to the head with just over a minute left in the opening round.
“Quintana caught me on an off-night (in February),” Williams said. “I was ready this time. I came to him.” Which is exactly what many LP members had to say when casting their predictions.
Quintana (25-2) got to his feet, but Williams put him back on the
canvas with another left hook that followed several jabs, and referee
Eddie Claudio stopped the bout at 2:15 when it was evident the
31-year-old could not continue.
