By Mark Vester
According to a recent report by boxing scribe Dan Rafael , the May 19 bout with WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and "Contender Star" Sergio Mora is off. Mora refused to fight Taylor at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. It was said that by walking away from the Taylor bout, Mora will lose a million dollar payday. Mora wanted to fight Taylor in Los Angeles or Las Vegas in order to draw a larger base of Hispanic fans to the fight.
"We're not going to fight Jermain in May. We don't want to fight in Memphis," said Contender promoter Jeff Wald to Rafael. "For a big championship fight like Taylor-Mora, we didn't want to be in a place like Memphis, no offense to Memphis. We would rather do something more interesting."
Promoter Lou DiBella told Rafael that Taylor will still fight on May 19 in Memphis, and he contacted promoter Don King to ask about the availability of IBF junior middleweight champion Cory Spinks. Spinks would have to move up to 160-pounds to make the fight.
"I already offered the fight to Cory Spinks," DiBella said. "Cory has called out Jermain before and with Jermain being from Little Rock [Ark.] and Cory being from St. Louis, the fight would be very, very big in Memphis, even bigger than a Mora fight I think. So I've offered the fight to Don, but if Don prices himself out, he prices himself out."
Spinks trainer and manager Kevin Cunningham said that his fighter wants the fight as long as it's set very soon.
"As long as they let us know in a timely manner," Cunningham said. "We would have to be in camp by March 19 or we wouldn't do it. I need him in camp eight weeks. If they got back to us in the next 48 hours we would take it."
