Gomez, Manfredo Jr, Mora?

[Addison]

Mora has potential. He can fight. I think he can make some noise. He got skills.

I like Mora. I was surprised to find out he's generally hated.

I agree, I think the man has skills as well.

[-Antonio-]

Mora picked a perfect opponent in Ouma, a guy who he can move and counter against. We'll see if he can stand up to 10 rounds of pressure though.

[Brockton Lip]

Here's a good article on the Latin Snake, by Doug Fischer.....:

Southern California Notebook
By Doug Fischer (Aug 30, 2007)


Things change fast in the boxing world. It pays to be versatile enough to roll with the punches when they come in bunches.

Last week I thought I had the main subject of my next three Notebooks locked up. This week I was going to focus on some of the fighters on the Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga undercard who were training in Southern California, or had come to this area from the East Coast a little early to get ready for their bouts on the Sept. 8th card that was to be held at STAPLES Center.

Next week, I was going to focus on Commando Nando himself, and the week after I was going to profile Sergio Mora the week of his Sept. 15th showdown with Kassim Ouma.

Then news of Fernando’s bleeding stomach ulcers (yuck) and anemia came down along with the postponement of the Mayorga fight, which was a buzzkill by itself, but the cancellation of the undercard meant I didn’t have Kermit Cintron, Jesse Feliciano, Roman Karmazin and/or Giovanni Lorenzo to write about this week.

So I decided Tuesday to move Mora up on my SCN schedule. I know his fight with Ouma, which is the co-featured bout to the Juan Manuel Marquez-Rocky Juarez HBO Pay-Per-View show, is two and half weeks away, but that means he’s still sparring and I had heard that the East L.A. native and undefeated 154-pound prospect James Kirkland had been going to war in the gym.

So, what the heck, I thought, change of plan. I called Mora’s cell phone late Tuesday afternoon to see if it was OK for me to pop in on Wednesday. Nobody picked up, and I was greeted by a recorded hissing sound (no bulls__t).

That’s it. The sound that a snake makes is all you get when you call Mora’s cell and get his voice mail.

There’s no: “Hi, you’ve reached Sergio Mora, winner of season one of The Contender and future middleweight champion of the world, please leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can” or “Sergio Mora, the Latin Snake, is not around to take your call, please leave a message”.

There’s just: “Hssssssssss!” and then the sound of the beep.

[details]

Thanks for the article!

[-Hyperion-]

Here are Mora's reasons to him turning down the opportunity to fight Taylor:

It was late last year and Mora was offered $850,000 to challenge Jermain Taylor for his middleweight championship.

Initially, Mora said, the fight was going to be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles or a venue in Las Vegas. He was agreeable to either. But the site was changed to Memphis, which is just down the road from Taylor's hometown of Little Rock, Ark.
Mora balked.

"At the last minute, it was offered in Memphis," Mora said of the proposal that came from Taylor and his promoter, Lou DiBella. "I said no. They offered me more money. I said no. It was a team decision. It wasn't just my decision. It was a decision with me, my trainer, my family and everyone that matters and everyone that has been there from day one."

A victory over Taylor was going to be difficult to attain, as it was. Taking him on near his hometown, in Mora's mind, was going to make the task even harder to complete. The thought of hometown favoritism scares a lot of fighters, especially in this day of egregious decisions.

"That was going to be another barrier for me to jump, and I just think there was going to be too many things stacked against me to win," Mora said. "I don't want to lose. So, I decided the time wasn't right and if they want to do it at some other time, some other place, great. If not, I'm going to have to earn my championship shot again, which I plan on doing."

Mora, 26, spoke calmly to reporters during a conference call Wednesday. But when one stayed on him about turning down the opportunity of a lifetime as well as such a large payday, Mora became perturbed.

"Well, that's exactly it. You said it, for a good payday," Mora said. (Expletive) a payday. Get that out of your head."

And the opportunity?

"OK, let's talk about that great opportunity," he said. "That, I regret. I feel like I let that go out of my hands and in a lot of people's eyes, I won't get it again. In my heart, I feel that, you know, I'm 19-0. I got that opportunity early.

"What makes you think that I probably won't get it later when I develop more, when I'm a better fighter and higher ranked and when people actually believe and want to see it?

"A lot of people felt that I got that chance because of popularity (from "The Contender").

"You know what? I'm not dumb. I know that's why I got it as well. ... Respect the fact that I'm smart enough to put myself in a position where I'm not going to lose. I am a winner and I'm not going to put myself in a position where I can get things stolen from me."

[-Hyperion-]

mora training for Ouma.........................