"BACKING IT UP" By Jeff Mayweather

Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga was true to his prediction, as he pulled off a major upset over Ring Magazine's Welterweight champion Vernon Forrest in impressive fashion by way of a third round TKO.

Mayorga reminded me so much of Vernon Forrest before his match with then Pound for Pound King Shane Mosley. If you watched the pre-fight interview, you could see supreme confidence in Vernon's eyes when he said he would win over Mosley. Even if you didn't believe he would win you still had to give him a fighting chance.

Mayorga reminds me of Joe Namath, with his bold and almost cocky prediction of guaranteeing a victory against all odds. "El Matador" even went one step further, when he was brash enough to state that if he didn't knock Vernon Forrest out he would retire.

I must admit he had me convinced that he would come to fight; he even made me believe he had a chance, but logic made me stick with the prohibitive favorite. I was shocked to see the power that Mayorga brought in the ring.

I was even more shocked of the advice that came out of Vernon's corner, when Ronnie Shields -a trainer whom I have a great deal of respect for- gave Vernon the worst advice possible, telling Vernon Forrest to "go right at this guy and dig to his body." Why would Forrest, at practically 6 ft. tall, put himself in harm's way by giving up his height to go to the much shorter man's body? ... Particularly when the shorter man proved he could punch and was a free swinger, every punch had bad intentions written all over it?

Vernon did a great job when he was boxing from long range, he was out of harm's way and could see the shots coming. In close quarters he gave Mayorga the opportunities without Ricardo having to work his way in under the long jab of Vernon.

I read so many stories on various sites about Ricardo Mayorga and he had extreme belief and confident in himself; he's truly a character but certainly a breath of fresh air. I really like him even though Vernon is a friend of mine. I hope that Vernon doesn't repeat the same mistake that Shane made with him. This was a devastating loss, Vernon needs a fight in between to regain the confidence he will need when he steps back in the ring with Mayorga. If he takes the rubber match right away, I think he too will fall again. The minute Mayorga hits him his mind will automatically go back to that moment in time, and just as Shane did, he too will go into survival mode.

Vernon is still young and there is no need to rush. It took Vernon a long time to get respect; he was patient and things worked out. Vernon is one of the class acts in boxing and I will always respect him if he never wins another fight at all, same goes for Shane Mosley. When you get so caught up in trying to prove a point, logic goes out of the window and that is what happened Saturday night. Unfortunately for Vernon logic was also lost in the corner.