By Mark Vester
On the undercard to Joel Casamayor-Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, A win is always a win, but sometimes it’s not enough. Vernon Forrest (41-3, 29 KO) recaptured the WBC junior middleweight title from Sergio Mora (21-1-1, 5 KO) with a dominating twelve-round decision in their rematch. The scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 119-108.
Mora came out using his slicker boxing style to work around Forrest. In the second, Forrest began to outwork Mora with a higher punch output. He was also dictating the pace and lander the crisper, harder punches to the head and body. There was a clash of heads in the third that stunned Forrest for a moment.
A cut opened up around Mora's eye in the fifth-round. Forrest focused on the cut and began to let his hands go to get Mora in some minor trouble. In the sixth, Forrest began to load up and land some heavy punches to keep Mora on the defensive against the ropes.
In the seventh, Forrest scores a knockdown when Mora buckled from a hard left and his knee touched the floor. During the ninth, Forrest got Mora in trouble again and tried to finish him near the end of round. Mora was able to escape. Forrest continued the assault in the last few rounds, keeping Mora on the back foot with harder punches and setting things up with his non-stop jab.
