GIVE THAT MAN A CIGAR

It’s hard to figure out what’s going on in the welterweight division. Things just aren’t working out the way they are supposed to. A bit like life itself.

First, Shane Mosley was supposed to be one of the greatest fighters in years. Then he goes and gets pasted by Vernon Forrest — and loses the rematch. So we confess that we underrated Forrest all along and elevate the tall boxer-puncher from Augusta, Georgia, to the status of one of the world’s best fighters.

And what happens? Just a year after shocking the boxing world by dominating Mosley, Forrest, fighting one month before his 32nd birthday, gets shocked himself, blasted in the third round by Nicaragua’s fearless slugger, Ricardo Mayorga, in the ballroom of the Pechanga resort and casino at Temecula, California (an approximately 80-minute drive from Los Angeles) on 25 January.

This might go down as the biggest upset of the new year with 11 months to go. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Forrest, who had won 35 fights in a row, was supposed to be too talented, too tall and simply have too many tools for Mayorga.

But the 29-year-old Mayorga is one of those intrepid types who never knows when he is beaten and who absolutely does not respect reputations.

He promised to knock out Forrest inside seven rounds. No chance, we thought. But he went out and walked the walk — just as he had done when he fulfilled his pre-fight prediction with a fifth-round bombing of Six Heads Lewis last March.

Forrest, it was widely thought, was made of sterner stuff than Lewis, whose chin was considered suspect. But when Mayorga hits them, they go.

There will be a rematch, of course. But first, Mayorga, who retained the World Boxing Association title he won from Lewis and captured Forrest’s World Boxing Council belt, will try to clean up the division by becoming International Boxing Federation champion.

His promoter, Don King, plans to match him with the winner of the officially mandated IBF title fight between Michele Piccirillo and Corey Spinks. (“I’ve got both of them, too,” King reminded the post-fight press conference.)

Mayorga would surely be too powerful for the Italian Piccirrillo or the southpaw Spinks. Then it will be Forrest and Mayorga again. King said it is in Forrest’s best interests to be patient “because then he’ll be fighting for three belts”.

And even as the shock waves were settling after one of the most frenzied three-rounders in recent memory (not quite Hagler-Hearns, but dramatic enough to be considered memorable) boxing people had their own ideas on what went wrong for Forrest.

The general consensus was that Forrest played into Mayorga’s hands by getting into a war instead of using his superior boxing wisdom. It was thought that, after being given an eight count following a disputed knockdown in the first round, Forrest foolishly decided that he had to get his own back by dumping Mayorga on the floor.

Perhaps a more circumspect Forrest could do better next time. The ex-champ said afterwards that sometimes you have to box and sometimes you have to fight. But it seemed to most observers that he fought too much and boxed too little.

Forrest felt that he had to lay some hurt on Mayorga to slow down the insolent aggressor. But while Forrest landed some good shots, especially the right uppercut, and was making it exciting for the crowd, he was also fighting Mayorga’s fight, his recklessness giving the less skilled boxer the chance to land a big blow. And in the third Mayorga finally landed cleanly with the right hand, sending Forrest sliding down the ropes, body limp, legs splayed and wearing a “What happened?” expression.

Although Forrest got up quickly his eyes seemed unfocused. Veteran referee Marty Denkin completed the eight count and moved a finger backwards and forwards in front of Forrest’s eyes in a standard test of response. The fighter’s eyes didn’t follow the finger. Denkin waved the finish.

Forrest said afterwards that he was watching Mayorga, not the ref. But, sorry, Forrest seemed to me, from my ringside position, to be gazing vacantly into the middle distance. The stoppage, after two minutes, six seconds of the third round, seemed totally justified.

There was no immediate protest from Forrest although he was to assert afterwards that the fight was stopped too soon. But Forrest was in a weakened condition, and Mayorga is a brutal puncher. I fear that Forrest could have been hurt — as in really hurt — if the referee had let him continue.

Anyone can get hit by a good shot. But Forrest’s reckless, bombs-away slugging made it easier for Mayorga.

The fight had seemed to be going Forrest’s way, but he has never fought with such wild abandon. In the third, he almost swung himself to the floor when missing with a huge right-hander. He gathered himself, each man threw a left hook simultaneously that missed, but Forrest was wide open and Mayorga hit him with the big right. A new star had been born.

Promoter Lou DiBella (who worked with Don King to make the unification fight happen) called Mayorga one of the strongest, most dangerous fighters he’d ever seen.

If Mayorga does indeed unify the titles, the rematch with Forrest will be eagerly anticipated. There will no doubt be those who will say that Forrest just got hit by a lucky punch. But there was nothing lucky about it. Although Mayorga has a rawness about him he showed some boxing intelligence, sticking out some jabs, moving his head quite well, countering with both hands — and he was always trying to work himself into the position from which he could land a decisive blow.

Even when the big punches were flying, Mayorga always seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

Perhaps things would have been different had the referee not ruled that Forrest had been knocked down in the first round. Mayorga seemed to drag him off balance when a left hook went behind Forrest’s head. But having been floored, if debatably, for the first time in his career, Forrest seemed intent on payback to the extent that strategy went out of the window.

Forrest said afterwards he believed the fight was stopped too soon. “A champion’s supposed to get the opportunity to fight to the end,” he said. “I was looking at the other guy [after getting to his feet in the third round]. I was very coherent. He caught me a good shot. I’m looking at him. The ref goes: ‘Step to me. You OK?’ and stops the fight. A true champion is supposed to go out on his back.”

I fear that is exactly what would have happened had the referee let him continue.

Forrest told the post-fight press conference: “I knew what the guy had to offer going into the fight, knew exactly what he was going to do and what fight he was going to fight. The main thing was to slip and come up with the uppercut or counter with the hook. I have the ability to box, but you fight a guy like that, you have to stand your ground sometimes. I knew I wasn’t going to box this guy for 12 rounds. Sooner or later I’d have to fight him. I chose to fight him early.

“If I had to do it all over again, I’d box him some and fight him some. We knew the guy was strong, wild and unpredictable. I wanted the WBA belt. You can’t call yourself a champion if you aren’t willing to take that risk. I risked it and came up short. I’m not immune to a loss. In the amateurs I lost 16 times. The mark of a true champion is to rise from a defeat and come back.”

But can he come back? Some were expressing reservations. Norman Horton, publicist for Shane Mosley, said: “The only fighter Vernon looks good against — unfortunately for us — is Shane.”

And while Forrest seems to, as they say, have Mosley’s number, there exists the possibility that Mayorga’s style is always going to be all wrong for Forrest.

The new champ’s cuts man, Cassius Greene, is one who thinks that this is the case.

“Styles make fights and I knew Forrest’s style was perfect for this guy. Forrest’s not a Sharmba Mitchell — he can’t dance and move out of the way of danger. He tries to walk out of the way, and you can’t walk out of the way when you’ve got a guy running towards you and throwing 200 punches,” Greene said. “That’s why he got in trouble.

“Vernon’s fought as a flat-footed fighter for too long. He can’t get up on his toes or bob and weave. I see the same thing happening [in a rematch] — three or four rounds.”

But Forrest’s trainer, Ronnie Shields, feels that his man simply fought the wrong fight.

Shields told me over the phone a few days after the fight that Forrest felt he had to come back strongly after being given the eight count in the first round (a round scored 10-8 for Mayorga by all three judges).

“I told him: ‘Don’t worry’ but in his mind he thought he had to make it up,” Shields said. “He just went in there and got out of the fight plan. You could see, it would be so easy for him to box this guy. We told him just stand in the centre of the ring, use the jab and box the guy and everything is going to happen for him later on, but he went in there and started winging and tried to knock the guy out and then he got caught.

“That’s boxing. It happens. He fought this guy’s fight — he didn’t fight his fight. Vernon’s a mature guy that got caught up in doing things he wasn’t supposed to do. It’s no problem. It taught him a lesson. He messed up, but he’s a man and he’s owned up to it. I’m 100% behind him. I don’t think Vernon’s going to have much trouble with this guy next time — he shouldn’t have had much trouble with him this time.”

But while Forrest focuses on a rematch, Mayorga revels in a success that to him was no surprise at all.

Everyone was agreed that Mayorga is like a breath of fresh air. He is colourful and carefree. At the weigh-in he munched on a slice of pizza while on the scale to show he had no worries about making weight. He came into the ring waving miniature flags — one in each hand — of Nicaragua and his adopted homeland of Costa Rica. He crossed the ring and tried to hold open the ropes for Forrest to enter. Referee Denkin quietly moved him away. And Mayorga nonchalantly puffed on a cigarette at the post-fight conference — he is apparently a heavy smoker when not in training, as was the former middleweight great, Carlos Monzon.

So, Mayorga is definitely a character. But what really matters is what happens in the ring, and with Mayorga you know you’ll get thrills and, probably, spills, win, lose or draw. He is, purely and simply, a fighter. His time at the top may be limited. Fighters with high-risk styles such as Mayorga can go suddenly. But it’s going to be wild ride while it lasts. As Don King said to me afterwards: “This guy’s gonna fight — and when you go down fighting that’s all I can ask from any man.”