by David P. Greisman
From its premiere season in front of millions of viewers on network television, “The Contender” promised not just to be the latest reality series from programming guru Mark Burnett, but to bring a spotlight to those fighters who, for one reason or another, had been passed over or cast off.
They got the spotlight. The small screen aside, a handful of contestants went on to receive title shots and big paydays, though none had come out successful. Peter Manfredo Jr., who finished second in the premiere season, challenged super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe and was blown away in a flurry of (missed) punches. First-season personality Alfonso Gomez stepped into the ring with welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto and left with his face rearranged. And second-season runner-up Steve Forbes, the most accomplished of any boxer ever to appear on the show, still ended up playing second fiddle in a loss to Oscar De La Hoya.
The first man to hold “The Contender” championship is now the first to own a legitimate world title.
Sergio Mora, whom Vernon Forrest had dismissed as an unproven “pretender” prior to Saturday’s bout at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., upset the veteran Forrest, out-hustling him en route to a majority decision victory.
Gale Van Hoy scored the bout even at 114-114. But the votes of John McKaie and Anek Hongtongkam – 115-113 and 116-112, respectively – put the World Boxing Council junior middleweight belt firmly around the waist of “The Latin Snake.”
“Thank God,” Mora said afterward. “I deserved this. I worked very hard for it. You can’t prepare for Vernon. I couldn’t relax, and I didn’t get overconfident.”
Indeed, Mora looked tight in the opening rounds, and Forrest took the first three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards with punches that carried extra percussion when compared to the whooshing of Mora’s shots.
But Mora found a routine, in the process taking Forrest out of his own.
Mora, whose past awkwardness had left him less than aesthetically pleasing, frustrated a Forrest who soon began to look for single shots. And while between rounds Mora was up off of his stool early, Forrest would remain seated until the bell rang.
Mora remained active on the inside, coming on in the later rounds by unleashing flurries and picking up points on the judges’ scorecards. Forrest, meanwhile, was far more content to bull Mora to the ropes, or to maul him with forearms and clinching.
When the bell tolled to signal the fight’s end, Mora, fired up, celebrated. Forrest merely moseyed back to his corner.
And the Vernon “Viper” Forrest who had spewed plenty of venom in the build-up to the bout had little bite afterward.
“He had a good game plan,” Forrest said in a post-fight interview. “I won’t take nothing from him. He fought a very good fight.”
Forrest is now 40-3 (29). At 37, and with his best years taken away by a lingering shoulder injury, his career could be winding down.
Mora, now 21-0-1 (5), should see his career pick up. He will no longer be the B-side, the guy from “The Contender” who brings name recognition but no reputation. Should Mora – who infamously turned down a shot last year at then-middleweight-champion Jermain Taylor – decide to stick at 154, he could draw more of the kind of partisan crowds such as the one that chanted his name Saturday night.
On the televised co-feature, Paul Williams exacted quick, unquestionable revenge, taking back his World Boxing Organization welterweight title with an impressive first-round stoppage of Carlos Quintana.
Quintana had lifted the belt from Williams just four months ago, using accurate counters and outboxing the lanky southpaw en route to a unanimous-decision victory. This time, Williams never gave Quintana the chance.
Williams had once overwhelmed his opponents with volume punching. On Saturday, he made his shots count.
Working from a distance, Williams used his jab to set up hard straight left hands, which hurt Quintana and left him reeling. Quintana finally went down with about one minute remaining in the opening heat.
He never made it out of the kitchen.
Williams fired away, landing a series of left hands that prompted referee Eddie Claudio to step in just as Quintana fell forward with an impromptu tackle. The time of the stoppage was 2:15.
“Last fight he caught me on an off night,” Williams said afterward. “I won tonight with good skill training and good sparring. You can’t take the belt away from a true champion.”
And as he walked back into his locker room, Williams took a look at his belt, smiled broadly and said:
“I’m glad to have this back.”
Williams brought his record to 34 wins and 25 knockouts, with the lone loss now avenged. If he can continue to boil his six-foot frame down to the 147-pound limit, then Williams stands to thrive in the post-Floyd Mayweather-era of the still-deep welterweight division.
Quintana, meanwhile, falls to 25-2 (19), with both losses going down as early nights. Miguel Cotto made his fellow Puerto Rican retire on his stool after five rounds in December 2006. Williams ended proceedings earlier.
“I got caught cold,” Quintana said briefly before being taken to the local hospital for examination. “I was hit in the back of the neck, and that’s what did it. It was overwhelming.”
In other action Saturday:
Junior-middleweight contender Sergio Martinez continued his climb out of relative anonymity with a seventh-round technical-knockout victory over Armenian journeyman Archak “Shark Attack” TerMeliksetian.
Martinez and TerMeliksetian waged a battle that proved a treat to those who arrived before the broadcast began, exchanging bravado, machismo and, most importantly, punches. But Martinez’s superior hand speed ultimately broke TerMeliksetian down, sending him to the canvas once in the sixth and once more in the seventh. Martinez closed in and closed the show with 46 seconds remaining in the round.
Martinez, whose sole loss came in 2000 at the hands of Antonio Margarito, is now the number-one contender to new WBC beltholder Sergio Mora. His record now stands at 43-1-1 (23), while TerMeliksetian, who has lost six of his last seven, falls to 16-7 (13).
Heavyweight prospect Bowie “The Tongan Torpedo” Tupou scored a dominating second-round stoppage over divisional measuring-stick Otis Tisdale. Tupou dug in early to Tisdale’s ample body, and the head soon followed, with Tupou scoring three knockdowns in the second stanza. The referee stepped in with 64 seconds remaining in the round, though not before Tupou landed one last left on his kneeling opponent. Tupou, who was in his first fight with trainer Jeff Mayweather, improves to 15-0, with 12 wins coming by way of knockout. Tisdale falls to 25-21-1 (15).
If last week’s EliteXC broadcast put the spotlight on Gina Carano, Kaitlyn Young and women’s mixed martial arts, then, similarly, the brief brawl between Melissa Hernandez and Missy Fiorentino did well on a much smaller scale for women’s boxing. Hernandez and Fiorentino wailed away at each other for five minutes. When the barrages ceased, it was only because the ringside physician felt the cut on Fiorentino’s right eye was too bad for the New England native to continue. Hernandez was awarded the technical knockout with 57 seconds remaining in round three. She improves to 8-1-2 (3), while Fiorentino is now 17-2 (6).
In the show’s opener, former 122-pound beltholder Clarence “Bones” Adams fought to a four-round no contest with one-time title challenger Jesus Salvador Perez. A clash of heads opened up a cut over Perez’s right eye, a wound bad enough for officials to call a halt to the bout. Time of stoppage was 1:49 of the fourth round.
After going winless in four bouts, Adams spent more than three years outside of the sport. He returned in 2006, compiling a two-fight winning streak, and in Perez he was facing a guy who was knocked out in 2001 by then-bantamweight-titlist Tim Austin.
That was Perez’s first loss. He had since lost 19 of his past 25. Perez remains, then, 25-20-3 (14); Adams’ record sticks at 43-6-4 (19).
And in the walk-out bout, Lamar Harris and Aaron Quintana fought to a four-round majority draw. Harris is 4-0-1 (3); Quintana is 4-0-1 (2).
David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on MaxBoxing.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
