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 Not Seeing Forrest for the Trees
By Sean Stowell (February 3, 2003)
Photo © Hoganphotos.com
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You’ve heard the saying “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” It’s used to describe someone too wrapped up in the details to gain a view of the whole. It seems that the boxing world “can’t see Vernon Forrest for the trees.”
People are too caught up in his shocking loss to Ricardo Mayorga and what he should and shouldn’t have done two weekends ago on HBO to see the whole of Forrest’s future.
Remember, Forrest has only lost once as a professional. He fought an awkward, come-forward brawler who gives and takes a punch with the best of them. Sure, Forrest made a mistake in the way he decided to fight Mayorga and it cost him his WBC welterweight title and put a blemish on his
otherwise pristine career.
Forrest is still a good fighter. He’s an incredibly good “boxer” who can snap his jab effectively and follow it up with a hard right that is on point. Forrest isn’t done. He’s got a rematch with Mayorga still to come and he’ll do things differently.
He had a bad night. One bad night does not ruin a career. Many good and great fighters have made mistakes and come back more focused, in better shape and even a little meaner. Oscar De La Hoya shouldn’t have back pedaled the last few rounds in his fight with Felix Trinidad. Muhammad Ali should have trained harder and taken Leon Spinks a bit more seriously. They all came back, did things in their next fights differently and reaped the rewards.
It’s a safe bet that in his next fight, Forrest will try to box Mayorga and it’s also a safe bet that he won’t come to the ring with a rapping posse large enough to rival the population of the Wu Tang Clan.
Forrest won’t abandon the welterweight division after one loss. He says he’ll stick around because he hasn’t achieved his goal.
“My goal is to clean out my division,” Forrest said after the fight. “I haven’t done that yet.”
A loss hurts, especially when you sacrifice a regular life for months at a time in preparation for battle, only to come up short. The loss hurts Forrest, but he knows how lose. That’s not saying that he’s content with losing, that’s saying that as a world-class amateur he learned how to come back from losses and went on to achieve excellence. Before turning pro in late 1992, Forrest had a 225-16 amateur record. He was the 1992 junior welterweight world amateur champion and 1991 U.S junior welterweight titlist. He was also a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona.
“I lost 16 times as an amateur but I still made it to the Olympics,” he said. “In terms of a loss, I’m not immune to a loss. I’ll dust myself off and come back.”
Mayorga will fight one time before he meets Forrest again according to the tough Nicaraguan’s promoter Don King. Most likely he will face the winner of the March 22 IBF welterweight title bout between Michele Piccirillo and Corey Spinks in Italy, and them take on Forrest.
“There will be a rematch,” King said. “Vernon Forrest is an over comer.”
So with a rematch on the horizon what will Forrest do differently in his sequel with Mayorga?
“I have the ability to box,” Forrest said. “Some guys you box and some guys you fight. In the rematch I’ll box him some and fight him some. When I get by myself and play (the first fight) back in my head, we’ll see how I feel.”
Forrest is smart; he knows how to adjust in times of adversity. One fight does not make a fighter and only a rematch will decide if we “can see Forrest for the trees.”
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E-Mail Sean Stowell at seanstowell@hotmail.com
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