FORREST SEEKS UNIFICATION OVER MAYORGA
www.insideboxing.com

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

(IB – January 20. 2003) – On Saturday night, live from Temecula, CA and televised on HBO, Vernon "the viper" Forrest (35-0, 26 KOs) will take a big step toward unifying the Welterweight titles. In order to do this, he must defeat the WBA Welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (24-3-1, 22 KOs) in their 12 round title fight.

Forrest is proving that he is a man of his word. Vernon informed the boxing community back when he 1st landed the six- fight contract with HBO that he wants to only fight the best fighters. Let's face it, Forrest had the luxury to hand pick any opponent yet he opted to go straight for the WBA champion to seek unification. This is an example of Forrest's character. This great champion is daring to be great and is seizing the opportunities to attempt great things. So when you speak about a P4P contender, its qualities found in Forrest that shapes a best P4P fighter. The fighters who are willing to step up and take on the best opponents in their respective weight classes.

Saturday night will provide Forrest the stage to answer the question, is Vernon Forrest for real? Unlike Junior Jones defeating Barerra twice then falling out of the top rankings, I envision Vernon Forrest dismantling Mayorga and going on to even bigger and better achievements.

What also makes Vernon Forrest special is the generosity that he possesses. On the under card of the Mayorga fight, Forrest is affording some of his fellow Atlantans the opportunity to showcase their talents as well. Robert Allen (33-4) will take on Antoine Robinson (26-6-1) in a middleweight bout, heavyweight prospect Cedric Boswell (20-0) will take on Jim Strohl (24-2), and Xavier Tolliver (10-2) will also be featured on the card.

Even though Vernon has had a long road to achieve his current level of success, this is a nice way to reach back in an effort to bring his colleagues additional exposure that may turn out to accelerate their respective careers. This says a lot about what kind of all around Champion Vernon Forrest is.

As for Mayorga, he practically has all to win and nothing to lose which makes him a dangerous opponent. Practically no one is giving him a chance at competing with Forrest. So as you can see, HBO and the boxing community expects big things from Forrest and all eyes will be on Vernon Forrest come Saturday night 1/25/03. The good thing about is, they will not be disappointed and Forrest will demonstrate why he is receiving all of the accolades. He’s simply a great fighter!

So if you too are curious, tune in to HBO on Saturday night and watch how "the viper" strikes. Who knows, if Mosley isn’t successful against Raul Marquez in their 154lb contest on February 8th, Forrest could find his name on the dotted line against De La Hoya come September 13th of this year (imagine that)!

You have just gone InsideBoxing.com

Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com