By Paul Strauss, photo by Peter Mark Heintzelman – The Latin Snake didn’t slither or crawl. He was more like the Mongoose, darting and dancing, taking a bite out here and there, and getting warned about targeting the back of the head. His speed and quickness frustrated Vernon Forrest, who admittedly was flat. In fact, Vernon seemed to come into the ring that way. His body language and facial expression suggested he just wasn’t “there” mentally.
Buddy McGirt pleaded with him to let his hands go, to quit trying to load up and just let his punches flow. However, Mora’s style kept him out of sync and too often stationary. Several times during the fight, the crowd booed, not so much at one fighter or the other, but at both, because of the lack of action. Mora would dance and dart, tantalizing Vernon, daring him to attack, but too much of the time Vernon was unable to do so..
Those times when Vernon would mount an attack, the elusive Mora would evade the punches, or if contact was made, he would roll and slide with them to nullify the power. A few times he was tagged, but was so wired with the adrenaline flow that
they had no effect.
The early part of the fight, and probably even up to the middle rounds, Vernon was doing alright, primarily because Mora wasn’t doing much offensively. So, it appeared Vernon was tallying up the rounds. Then Mora landed a pretty good lead right hand that seemed to at least surprise Vernon, and invigorate Mora. He finally mounted his first offensive attack and control seemed to turn his way.
Neither fighter appeared hurt over the course of the bout, but Vernon did appear frustrated and at times lackluster. During the post-fight interview, he was very gracious in defeat, with the decision going to Mora on a majority decision basis.
Vernon complimented Mora explaining, “He fought a good fight, a technical fight.”
He further explained Mora’s herky jerky style gave him lot’s of problems, and left his own efforts flat. He plans to continue on with his career even though he is age 37.
Mora promises that fans haven’t seen his best yet. He was oozing with confidence, and still wound tighter than Paulie Malignaggi’s dreadlocks. His pre-fight plan included intentions to return to the middleweight level, but as Al Bernstein commented, the Junior Middleweight/Super Welterweight Division seems to be a good fit for him.
In other action, Kelly Pavlik predictably destroyed Lockett in less than three. Lockett did his best to look tough when coming into the ring, but he came off as more of a candidate for constipation sufferer’s commercial. Lockett landed one right hand punch that could be called effective. Otherwise, he was pretty much a target. Kelly demonstrated the need for fighters to learn the importance moving their heads against punchers. Lockett apparently never learned that, which allowed Pavlik to blast through his guard. Even punches high on Lockett’s forehead knocked him silly. Kelly’s ready to face whoever is placed in his path, whether it be Calzaghe, Abraham, or whomever.
One of the quickest, but most interesting fights was the Ponce De Leon loss to Lopez. Both southpaws, the fight opened pretty much as expected, with De Leon pressing the action, and Lopez lying back a bit, sizing up his opportunities for countering. It didn’t take long for the opportunity to present itself, as De Leon brought his left back, like a revolutionary soldier wanting to cock the hammer on his flintlock, making ready for the explosion to follow. However, the time it took to do that was all Lopez needed fire his own right hook over and let De Leon run right into it. Essentially, the fight was over. As someone once described a hard hit fighter, “He’s on chicken legs”. De Leon was able to beat the count, but the end was near.
In the big rematch between Paul Williams and Carlos Quintana, the experts were right……..oh so right! Even though Quintana was the titleholder and previous victor, the experts installed Williams as the favorite. How this man makes weight is a
real mystery? He looks like a light heavyweight, and he made excellent use of his physical advantages. Just as in the De Leon versus Lopez fight, the loser ran into a punch. But, this time the big punch was a straight left power punch landing right on the button. Just as with De Leon, Quintana was able to beat the count, but the fight was over. His control of his reflexes was gone. No longer was there any head movement. He was a sitting duck, and the referee probably let the action continue a bit too long, because it was obvious Quintana was badly hurt and could be seriously and possibly permanently injured.
Here’s an intriguing thought. Paul Williams is such a big welterweight at 6’2″, with an 81″ reach that I wonder if he could match up against Kelly Pavlik? Interesting possibility, don’t you think? Fans would have two tall, lengthy guys, whose punch output is off the chart, and one is a southpaw. I tend to think Kelly, as the natural middleweight with more power would prevail, but it does seems to be an interesting match-up. The reality is Williams will probably see himself matched up against Margarito again, and in that one, he might find himself in Quintana’s position, having won the first fight, but still installed as the underdog? It might turn out to be another one of those “redemption” type situations!