by David P. Greisman
There are several names at middleweight on whom Sergio Mora could set his sights, from lineal champion Miguel Cotto to Al Haymon stablemates Jermain Taylor, Peter Quillin and Danny Jacobs. But he wants the fighter seen by many as the most dangerous man at 160 — Gennady Golovkin.
“I’m a huge Sugar Ray Leonard fan. When he fought Marvin Hagler after that long layoff, everyone thought that he was going to get killed,” Mora told BoxingScene.com in late October. “In order for you to really shut the critics up and achieve some kind of greatness, you got to do something that’s really, really out of this world. I’ve done some good things in my career like ‘The Contender’ and beating Vernon Forrest. Even if I don’t beat him [Golovkin], even if I go 12 rounds with him and make him bleed, that would be as much of a win for me in my career.”
Golovkin to Mora is the No. 1 middleweight in the world. Mora says he’d face GGG for “the right kind of money.”
“I think [Marco Antonio] Rubio got like $600,000, minus the $100,000 he lost on the scales. Curtis Stevens got like $300,000 and [Daniel] Geale got like $600,000. That’s a good payday to face Golovkin,” Mora said. “If I can get that type of money to face Golovkin, I’ll fight him after he knocks out [Martin] Murray. That’s pretty good money, half a million, $600,000, $700,000. But if it’s only $100,000, $200,000, then I’d rather face these other guys for that type of money, the Danny Jacobs, the Jermain Taylors.”
First Mora is scheduled to return on a Dec. 11 card in California. It will be his fourth bout back since a majority decision loss in a rematch with Bryan Vera in 2012. Since then, Mora topped Gregorz Proksa by unanimous decision in June 2013, knocked out Milton Nunez in November 2013 and stopped Samuel Rogers this past May, bringing his record to 26-3-2 with 9 KOs.
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
