WELTERWEIGHT KING By Jeff Mayweather

Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga still reigns as the Welterweight King; although this fight was much closer, it was a lot less entertaining. Vernon Forrest got off to a very slow start being overly cautious and appearing as though he really didn't know how to actually box from the outside, or just from the fear of being caught early in the fight.

In the first four rounds the fight was extremely sloppy on both sides. I think what happened to Forrest in this fight was the same exact thing that happened to Mosley when he faced Forrest in the rematch. Once Forrest tasted Mayorga's punching power he lost focus of what his game plan to win was and he toiled around clueless for a number of rounds before he got himself back on track.

Mayorga -the Dennis Rodman of boxing- was just as wild and careless as he was in the first bout. He even allowed Forrest to take four free shots at him to the head, with his face clearly exposed. This had to send a message to Forrest that this guy's not going anywhere. This is actually when Forrest understood what his fight plan was about, from this point on he started to actually box at a safe distance and was turning the fight around back into his favor.

Unfortunately he mounted his comeback a little too late to overtake Mayorga, whom he gave way too much respect too early in the fight and was clearly winning the early rounds. Mayorga is probably one of the least talented fighters in all of boxing when it comes down to skills, but his tremendous will, pressure, desire and belief in himself, and will defeat many fighters whose talent level is well above his. When you have punching power and a chin like Mayorga's it makes it difficult to win against him.