By Sammy Rozenberg
Last weekend, we saw two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright, in a fight lacking the adequate action and excitement to satisfy the live Vegas crowd and the thousands watching on pay-per-view.
This weekend at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washinton, two former welterweight champions who are both 36-years-old, gave it their all for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. When the smoke was finally clear, Vernon Forrest (39-2, 28 KOs) won a tough twelve-round unanimous decision over Carlos Baldomir (43-11-6, 13 KOs) to win the vacant title.
The fight was an exciting affair that saw the live crowd stand on their feet after most of the rounds. Baldomir showed a concrete chin with the amount of hard punches he took during the course of the fight. Forrest was very accurate with his left jab, using it to maneuver his opponent.
The two fighters were not shy about trading power punches, Forrest usually getting the better of every exchange and making Baldomir miss most counters. Forrest took plenty of punches as well, and had a swollen right eye by the third round.
Both fighters were active in the contest. Forrest was averaging 54 punches per round and Baldomir was throwing 53.
In the ninth round, Baldomir actually stunned Forrest with a hard right hand. As he began to follow-up with more punches, Forrest landed a hard low blow that cost him a point. He came back out in the tenth with the same left jab to take away any momentum Baldomir may have gained in the ninth.
As both fighters began to trade hard punches in the final thirty-seconds of the twelfth round, the crowd stood up tall and cheered on both fighters even after the fight came to an end.
Forrest landed 286 of 663 punches, Baldomir landed 157 of 669. The jab statistics show how Forrest set up the majority of the bombs he landed in the twelve round battle. He got off 107 of 342 jabs. Baldomir only landed 42 of 154 jabs.
The final scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 116-111.
Baldomir announced his retirement after the fight was over and what a way to go out. In 2006, Baldomir had a year most fighters would give the world for. Last January, he upset Zab Judah for the undisputed welterweight title, a few months later he knocked out Arturo Gatti and closed out 2006 by headlining a major pay-per-view while losing a lopsided decision to the best fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Forrest, coming off a controversial decision win over Ike Quartey last August, redeems himself with an excellent showing of skill and power.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that Forrest's arrival in the junior middleweight division couldn't have come at a worse time. A year ago, the 154-pound weight limit was goldmine of talent and big money fights. In the last twelve months, most of the talent and big name competition have cleared out.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vacated his WBC 154-pound title and moved back to the welterweight division to maintain his status of being the WBC 147-pound champion while chasing a fight with Ricky Hatton, currently the best junior welterweight. Oscar De La Hoya has recently made it known that if he decides to return to the ring, he would return to the welterweight division - in 2008.
Fernando Vargas, another moneymaker at 154, has moved up to the middleweight division and promises that his September pay-per-view date with Ricardo Mayorga will be the final fight of his career. Shane Mosley, who stopped Vargas twice in 2006, at 154, has moved back down to the welterweight division to pursue an inevitable meeting with Mayweather.
Even fighters like Kassim Ouma have moved to other divisions. Ouma will continue to compete as a middleweight, taking on unbeaten Contender star Sergio Mora in September. After losing a decision last weekend to Bernard Hopkins at a catch-weight of 170-pounds, Winky Wright, arguably the best junior middleweight of our era, will not consider a return to 154 (at this time). Wright will only drop down as far as 160-pounds (unless De La Hoya comes calling).
So what does the junior middleweight division have to offer?
Well, IBF champ Cory Spinks appears to be the biggest name at the moment. Spinks recently lost a split-decision to WBC/WBO middleweight champ Jermain Taylor, but made a surprisingly good account of himself in the fight. If a bout between Forrest and Spinks is held in St. Louis, there could be a decent payday involved.
Joachim Alcine, who recently beat Travis Simms to become the WBA champion, is another possible opponent. Alcine is unknown to American fans and brings more risk than money to the table.
The rest of the fighters occupying the junior middleweight division are a who's who of B to C-level opposition. Fighters like Roman Karmazin, Travis Simms, Alex Terra Garcia, Jose Rivera and Daniel Santos.
The one fighter who may eventually become a breakout star at the weight, and a huge threat to Forrest, is WBO champion Sergiy Dzinziruk (34-0, 22KOs) of Ukraine (residing in Germany). Dzinziruk stands at 6'0 and has above average power in both hands. He fought most of his career in either Germany or Poland, but has decent wins on his record, including a solid decision win over Daniel Santos.
At 36-years-old, Forrest cannot afford to wait too long for a big name to surface. He may have to take chances and fight all comers in order to create a demand for someone at 147 or 160 to fight him. Forrest said that he hopes Mayorga beats Vargas in September. Mayorga is the only man to beat him, twice, and Forrest would love the opportunity to avenge those losses.
