THE CONTRACTS ARE SIGNED...LET'S FIGHT! By Jeff Mayweather

December 13, 2003 - Saturday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey the boxing world will be in for a treat, a card billed "Night of the Undisputed...Back-to-Back-to-Back." There are quite a few interesting fights on this card but the one that is most intriguing to me is Cory Spinks vs Ricardo Mayorga. This fight has an element of mystique, a slick southpaw boxer versus an orthodox strong puncher and complete wild man.

I think the things that made Mayorga so endearing to his fans have now lost their appeal; not the fact that he smokes and drinks but the trash talking. It has gotten out of hand. At first it was kind of funny but lately some of the things he has said are so distasteful that you want to root for the other guy no matter who it may be.

It's strange to me because when Mayorga fought Vernon Forrest the first time he said he would knock Forrest out. I had never heard of him, so I said this guy has a great deal of confidence and has tremendous belief in himself. I loved that about him -and Vernon is a friend of mine- then, when Mayorga delivered that made him even more appealing.

For the second fight it became a completely different type of confidence; when you start talking about someone who has nothing to do with the fight but you find it necessary to insult them as well... One of the comments he made was that Vernon's wife would be washing his clothes after he was done with Vernon. What does that have to do with the fight? Vernon Forrest is a very nice guy who doesn't talk trash and does a lot for his community throughout Atlanta. I know none of this has anything to do with boxing either, but I guess I say it because sometimes you need to talk trash to certain opponents to get their attention. The reality is that the contracts are already signed and what's going to happen is going to happen.

I remember there was one time in my career, I was fighting Joey Gamache, I took the fight on two days notice in his hometown. Around 2:00 am I get a call. It's Joey Gamache and he says you're going down. My response was... "If I was afraid of you I wouldn't be here, I had two days to prepare for you so I can't be scared, so you can save your threats for someone else." I eventually did lose a twelve round decision to him. After the fight we talked for a while and it appeared as though he had felt foolish for doing what he did. He said, "Jeff, you are a Class Act."

I just feel that once a guy has signed the dotted line, whether he is scared or not, the fight is on. Mayorga has taken his trash talking to the point of being absolutely classless. Cory Spinks is a very quiet, laid-back guy who comes to fight. I feel he has a decent chance to upset Mayorga but physically he might just not be strong enough. Early on I see Spinks dishing out a boxing lesson, but he doesn't have the fire power to keep Mayorga off him. If his legs don't betray him he has a chance but if he doesn't fight the perfect fight, I see him getting caught and possibly losing by way of stoppage.