Sergio Mora’s boxing career to this point is that of a movie and the ending will reveal the legacy. Mora is trying to change things now as he heads into a November 16th bout against Milton Nunez in Citizen’s Bank Arena in Ontario, California on the undercard of Andre Ward vs. Edwin Rodriquez. Mora, who recently inked a contract with DiBella, is now looking to surprise more people with his underrated abilities in the middleweight division that seem to be running out of challengers for top fights.
It is a career that began in the 2000 Olympic trials finals when Mora faced Jermain Taylor who had 300 amateur fights to his 50, and though he suffered a loss, the margin was a close loss of five points. Mora went on to be an unpromoted fighter, fighting regionally in club shows before getting one of the biggest opportunities of his career, being on The Contender.
For those who do not remember The Contender aired on NBC and was hosted by Sylvester Stallone and made headlines for Najai Turpin’s suicide after a loss on the show. For those that remember the show, Mora was the one who won the competition even after being a 16-1 underdog to win it all when the show started. Mora remembers the exact number as it served as motivation through the show, yet even after his success Mora had yet to fight a ten round fight and began to receive offers for big fights.
The first big fight was a rematch of the 2000 Olympic Trials in Jermain Taylor who was being showcased by HBO at the time. “I took a lot of heat for declining that fight,” Mora said in a recent interview. Yet two years later, Mora earned the biggest win of his career by going down in weight to beat Vernon Forrest and win the WBC light middleweight championship. Once again, the odds makers had him as an underdog at 4 to 1 which, to be fair, is four times less than his status on winning The Contender.
The win was a gift and curse as Mora found himself enjoying the win too much and would lose to Vernon Forrest in the rematch. Forrest tragically passed away not long after and the rubber match would never be made. This set up a turning point in Mora’s career as after a Calvin Green win, he was thrust in the spotlight as he headlined a Golden Boy PPV on Mexican Independence day against Shane Mosley. For many observing the thought was that Mora was getting a push to the top, but the fight fell flat.
“I get a lot of heat for that fight against [Shane] Mosley when his next three fights against Floyd Mayweather, [Manny] Pacquiao and Canelo [Alvarez] were all uneventful,”Mora told me. Mosley who had never been overwhelmed or knocked out in his fights created a very tactical fight that Mora, a slick skillful fighter, found hard to create a crowd pleasing affair. Mora who now trains with Shane Mosley explains that they still give each other fits and that Mosley is just a tough to fight no matter who you are, but places the blame largely on Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant’s commentary.
“It was unprofessional and biased,” Mora argued. Mora believes the HBO commentary is a big part of what damaged his career as most ringside writers and fans at home had the fight within the 115-113 range if not a draw. HBO favored Mosley heavily based solely on coming forward. In contrast, the European broadcast favored Mora heavily making it one of the most bizarre cases of contrasts. The pure boxing fan who enjoys watching someone stay on the outside and score points while tactically fighting favored Mora, whereas the fans of those who create the action in the fight favored Mosley.
Mora left the Mosley fight with a draw and on top of that the fans labeled him a boring fighter since the last fight they saw on a PPV had two knockouts. Mora found himself going from the headliner of a PPV all the way to ESPN2 Friday Night Fights, which is normally where prospects or up and comers are featured. It was a subtle dig from the boxing world that the last fight did not live up to the hype and the fight against Brian Vera was another troublesome note.
Vera came out early, highly aggressive and the technical Mora appeared to look a tad bit befuddled by Vera’s punches that where not coming from places a technical fighter should throw. To listen to Mora explain the sequence of events leading up to the Vera fight it sounds like a storm brewing. “I didn’t train in camp with my long-time trainer and fought without him and with no game plan and it showed, “he said. Mora explained all this as he outlined what had occurred leading up to the fight. “Secondly, Vera wanted the fight at 162, fighting in his hometown of politically backwards Texas with 3 Texas judges. Then, I fought with used, soaking wet gloves from the semi-main event before me, making the gloves ineffective and sluggish, especially fighting a big, strong guy in a 16ft ring with lose ropes.” Mora still feels he won the fight, but felt that it was close.
The rematch on the other hand was a different story for Mora. He explained he trained with his long-time trainer as well as adding size to counteract Vera’s strength, he felt all but confident that a win was on the horizon yet it was the subtle things that Mora felt cost him. “I got new gloves for this fight, but I didn’t insist on neutral judges,” Mora explained. “I dominated that fight and was blatantly robbed….on top of this Ronny Shields and Vera even said so on camera.” Yet, without promotional leverage it was just viewed as another bad decision in Texas and the fact that not many watched the fight since it was broadcast on tape delay on Spanish only networks, added to lore that he had lost to Vera twice. “It was a travesty, “he insisted.
Yet after beating Gregorz Proksa on ESPN and signing with Lou DiBella, Mora believes that he has opportunities now. The November 16th fight for Mora is a chance for him to show off his speed, smarts and strategy. “You will see a slight change in A LOT of things especially smart aggression, “he said. This comes days after Abel Sanchez, trainer of Gennady Golovkin said, “Mora’s own mom wouldn’t go see him fight…he is that boring.” It seems as though Mora now realizes he is labeled and it is up to him and only him to break out of the mold to get a big fight and the one fight that he wants badly is one that hardly anyone seems interested in, Mr. Golovkin.
“I was offered [Golovkin] before he became a champion and a HBO sweetheart and declined. Too much risk, no reward. Now that he’s on top I will take the opportunity and expose the gorilla. Styles make fights. His style is basic,” Mora stated.
Sergio Mora will be in action November 16th bout against Milton Nunez in Citizen’s Bank Arena in Ontario, California on the undercard of Andre Ward vs. Edwin Rodriquez. For ticket information go to AXS.com or call 888-929-7849.
