Sergio Mora - 'The Contender' is Now a Champion
By Steve Kim
'AND NEEWWWWW!!!'....
Those were the two words that had Sergio Mora transfixed before his challenge of WBC jr. middleweight titlist Vernon Forrest. He had put up various reminders of it leading up to his bout last weekend at the Mohegan Sun Arena, and in his dressing quarters Mora had even put up a sign with the two words every challenger yearns to hear at the end of a fight.
So after taking control of the second half of his bout with Forrest, Mora had put himself in position to win his first major world title. Fighting with more energy and verve than the 38-year old Forrest, and slowing him down with a series of well-placed body blows, it looked like he had done more than enough to win.
As the final bell would sound and a weary Forrest trudged back to his corner, Mora would taunt the fighter that was so disrespectful and dismissive of him in the lead up to this fight. "AND NEW!!! AND NEW!!!" he would scream in Forrest's direction, who really didn't have much to say in response.
As the scores were read (114-114,116-112,115-113), Mora would hear those elusive words...
'AND NEEEWWW!!!!....'
Several days after his upset victory, it still hadn't hit 'the Latin Snake'.
"My brother keeps asking me that. It hasn't soaked in, it hasn't hit me yet," Mora would say this Tuesday afternoon inside the offices of his gym in Montebello, California. "About the only thing that's different now, strangers are calling me 'champ' and congratulating me and telling me I fought a great, smart fight. It hasn't soaked in yet."
Three years ago, Mora would win the initial season of 'The Contender'. Back then it was aired on NBC and came with a million dollar grand prize. This victory came on Showtime for considerably less money - but more respect within the boxing industry.
So what's bigger?
"That's a difficult question," admits Mora, "but I would have to say 'The Contender' title, honestly. Because that was like my Olympics. You ask a current champion that also won the gold medal, they always say the gold medal. So I think it's similar. It was the first time you ever received accolades and that attention, and in the scope of things, it was just better."
To many of its critics, 'The Contender' has been nothing more than a reality show that has produced far more Justin Guarinis and Ruben Studdards than Kelly Clarksons. While the fighters involved in the series do earn a level of recognition while on the program, they have failed to make any real impact on the sport’s biggest stages. It seemed that instead of producing true contenders, their main purpose was to be served up as cannon fodder for established names like Joe Calzaghe, Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya.
But this win, in many regards, legitimizes Mora as a professional prizefighter.
"Indeed, yeah," he agreed. "I needed to prove myself, even though I was a prospect when I was on the show. People expected me to do big things already, just because 'The Contender' itself was a big program. But they don't understand that I only had 14 fights and was 24 years old. They don't understand that. I won 'The Contender', I had 14 fights. Who fights for a world title at 14, 15, 16 fights? So I was still growing up, and whenever I decided that I was ready, that's when I was going to take my fight. And I thought I was ready."
Last year, Mora turned down a payday of approximately three-quarters of a million bucks to face then-middleweight champion, Jermain Taylor. He felt he simply couldn't win a decision versus Taylor in Memphis, TN, which had previously hosted a Taylor bout that ended in controversy, the disputed 2006 draw against Winky Wright. In Mora's place last year, Cory Spinks stepped in and promptly lost a dubious split decision himself.
Mora believed it wasn't just enough to fight for a championship and get paid well. He was there to win the title. But in the bottom line business of boxing, that move was met with great derision. He was dubbed by some as 'the Latin Fake'.
But with the victory over Forrest, he believes, "It vindicated the decision."
Coming into the bout, Mora had been labeled by Forrest as a 'pretender' and was dismissed as nothing more than a former sparring partner he had laughed at in the past. It was blatant disrespect, and something that may have reflected the feelings of many others.
"If critics, people, fans and other fighters that are on top of the game all feel that, it's impossible for him to think that it was just business and say that he didn't mean it - he meant it," says Mora. "But I still think it was classy of him to kinda recant everything he said and I appreciate him for that. I think it was a classy move."
Mora lauds Forrest for his vast knowledge of the game and his caginess, comparing him to a Bernard Hopkins - boxers who are judicious in their offensive output but don't leave a lot of holes defensively. "People who are exciting make a lot of mistakes," stated Mora, who says he was unable to get off for much of the fight because of the tactics of Forrest, which included plenty of holding and the use of elbows. "At one point he kneed me in the chest," he would point out.
The early rounds looked like a Forrest fight, which is to say that not much was happening, and the flow and tempo were being controlled by the long jab of the defending champion. Mora says he was also hampered in the beginning with his inability to warm up, with Paul Williams' quick blitzing of Carlos Quintana, and the fact he was forced by Forrest's handlers to re-wrap his hands in the dressing room.
He says by the third round he could feel the tide turning. By the middle rounds, Forrest began to look like a tired, old fighter. His body language on his stool said it all as he sagged in his corner, breathing heavily as he listened to Buddy McGirt, who exhorted him to raise his activity level.
"I not only sensed it when we were fighting and he was punching - because his punching power diminished. He does have strength, but it diminished, and aside from that, his whole body language, the way he was getting up, he was waiting till the last second. Just a lot of things," said Mora, who started letting his hands go more liberally in the late innings. "And the most important thing was the body shots. There were a lot of good body shots, a lot."
As the rounds mounted, Mora, surging in confidence, began to talk more and more to Forrest, who suddenly didn't have much to say to him.
"I just had to do it," said Mora, who simply couldn’t resist. "He did all the talking outside the ring and I wanted to do my talking, literally, inside the ring."
It wasn't a great fight by any means, as boos could be heard in the early rounds and the action was sporadic at best. And the worst part is, we may see Mora-Forrest II.
"We have an immediate rematch clause with Sergio Mora," said Gary Shaw, who is part of the promotional team of Forrest. And it looks like it will be enforced. "Unless," added Shaw, "we can get such a huge fight for Sergio that Vernon would benefit from it. But by and large, it's an Al Haymon call and a Vernon Forrest call and I would believe right now that the immediate rematch would be invoked."
Mora is looking for bigger and better (and more lucrative) things.
"I don't think people want to see that fight again because I admit it wasn't the most exciting fight and I love to be a part of exciting, big fights. Believe me, it wasn't my fault. I wanted to get it going, but he's just too much of a veteran, and he wouldn't let me. So yes, there's a rematch clause but there's holes in the contract and obviously with the promoters, everything revolves around big fights and big money. So I think changes can be made, but we'll see."