I definitely thought Mosley would be too much for Forrest. I had watched several of Vernon's fights leading up to their clash and was not that impressed. I was shocked when Mosley hit the canvas. For whatever reason (dating back to the amateurs) Vernon stylistically seemed to have Shane's number. That being said, I knew Forrest wouldn't reign long. I won big picking the tough but limited Ricardo Mayorga to stop Forrest. And I doubled my winnings when Mayorga won the rematch.
Damn you betted on mayorga both times? I didn't know who the hell mayorga was when he fought forrest the first time
I was a big Mosley fan at the time and thought that Forrest was a solid but unspectacular fighter who was more ESPN material. I thought Mosely would outclass him. I was pretty shocked by the result but after seeing the rematch, and then the two Wright fights I kinda got a handle on the chink in Moselys armor. He would just shut down and stop really trying when he got frustrated. His level of insensity just dropped way down. He got hurt bad by Forrest but had the opportunity to work his way back into the fight but just decided if Forrest didnt press the issue he was content not to as well. To be sure I underrated Forrest but I still think he wasnt as good as that fight made him look. If he was really that good he wouldnt have lost to Mayorga, Mora, and wouldnt have needed a gift to beat an ancient, inactive Quartey.
My opinion was Mosely was going to be in a lot of trouble with the tall lanky guys with a long reach. His kryptonite style wise, sort of like Tszyu. I like him better in matches where he does not have to constantly work to get in the right circumference to be effective with his defense/him landing himself/and especially Shane landing those counters of his. That stuff made me think he was very very susceptible to dropping a decision to a guy like this.
I had seen Mayorga fight on a few Don King undercards before the Forrest fight. I liked the way he beat the **** out of Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis. Although Forrest was clearly the more skilled boxer, he kept bragging at the pre fight interviews that he was going to "take the fight to Mayorga." Unlike Floyd Mayweather (who never means it when he says he is going to make it a brawl), I sensed Forrest really did mean it. It proved to be his undoing, as that played right into Ricardo's hand. Just like Mosley was mentally shaken after losing to Forrest, I felt Mayorga would still be in Forrest's head when they had the immediate rematch. Admittedly, I was getting a bit nervous during the last few rounds when the fight was getting so close. But, Mayorga eeked a close (and deserved, in my opinion) decision in the rematch, and I was in the money again. These wins helped make up for my losses the same year when John Ruiz fought one of the worst fights in heavyweight history (at least up to that point), and lost a decision to Roy Jones.
