Boxing

Re-Estimating Ricardo Mayorga

By Janne Romppainen

14.07 - After the final bell had gone and the decision was announced in the Orleans Casino, Las Vegas last Saturday it turned out that Ricardo Mayorga (Photo by Roger Williams) was the winner over Vernon Forrest and still the WBA and WBC welterweight champion of the world. After the fight that already has been reviewed in this site Mayorga had defeated his foe via close majority decision, scorecards reading 114-114, 115-114 and 116-112.

While the fight was close and some onlookers wanted to make a case for Forrest being better this time, Mayorga proved a lot in this fight. After he had scored a highly surprising and impressive third-round knockout victory over Forrest last January, many (including this writer) still were suspicious about his real skills. In that fight it seemed like Forrest had gotten carried away because of the questionable knockdown in the first round and wanted to trade with Mayorga, which played right into Mayorga’s hands and brought him the victory. This time, I thought, Forrest would be able to dictate the fight. However, that was not the case. He tried to box, move, jab and clinch to keep Mayorga from coming but he wasn’t successful enough and lost fair and square.

Looking back now Mayorga has scored three big victories in a row. Back in 2002 he knocked out Andrew “Six-Heads” Lewis who at the time was considered to be the third-best man in the division behind Forrest and Mosley. Then he knocked out Forrest and now he proved that he could beat him again. After both the Lewis fight and the first Forrest fight many saw Mayorga being aggressive, strong guy with big punch and strong chin but nothing more. Many pointed to his weaknesses in defence, movement and in the looping manner he throws his punches. But lightening wouldn’t strike three times. Now its obvious that regardless of his style he has to be doing something correctly in the ring. It is time to re-evaluate his skills.

As stated earlier, Mayorga does have a great punch and a strong chin. He doesn’t seem to be a one-punch knock-out artist, but his punch is enough to drop any man if they get careless and to keep them alert all the time. So in this sense Mayorga can create room for his punches with his punches. His opponent has to be concentrated on defence and that gives Mayorga time to throw more punches. His chin seems to be made out of stone too. Never in his big fights he has looked like he had been wobbled although body punches made him retreat on a couple of occasions. His showboating in the fourth round in the Forrest rematch, dropping his hands and letting Forrest punch freely shows both that his chin can take nearly anything and also that he trusts his punch resistance totally. To know what kind of a punching power Forrest possesses all you have to do is to watch the second round of his first fight with Shane Mosley.

Despite these obvious strengths Mayorga has other weapons too. Both Lewis and Forrest slugged with him even though they both knew it would be the worst style to fight against Mayorga. As I have thought about the fact now I have started to think that probably it wasn’t their decision at all. Maybe it is that Mayorga is able to force his opponents fight his fight. Mayorga seems to have pretty quick legs even though his balance is not always there, and with the furious manner he attacks it is not easy to avoid him. Forrest tried it in the fight on Saturday and he was forced to retreat quickly, sometimes even to turn his back to do that. Again, this has to do with Mayorga’s punch resistance though. As he can count on his chin, he can attack more freely. It doesn’t look too smooth or masterful, but his technique is very effective and that eventually is the only thing that counts.

Another thing about Mayorga that has been overlooked is the quickness of his hands. Sure he throws his hooks in a haymaker-manner, but he does it quickly and he is able to put up three- or four-punch combinations as well. Mayorga needs room for his shots but when he has that, he is very dangerous. Moreover, Mayorga has a tremendous upper body strength. In the clinches he was often able to push Forrest back and Forrest is a strong guy himself. Also Mayorga was able to break the clinches by punching his way out of them.

Even though Mayorga likes to smoke a lot, at least before the TV-Cameras and he eats chicken legs before fights, he seems to have a very good stamina. He was able to throw punches with a very high output against Lewis for five rounds without slowing down. Against Forrest in the rematch he controlled the fight for six rounds and after a couple of off-rounds he found his second wind and finished strongly. So unlike many powerful sluggers he is able to maintain his strengths throughout the fight.

So summing up, Mayorga is powerful, aggressive puncher who is very hard to win in toe-to-toe combat and he is able to deal with both moving and clinching strategies well. So even though his fighting sometimes looks amateurish, it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t an elite fighter. Vice versa, he is quickly solidifying his place in the pound-for-pound top-10 rankings. One more victory over a top contender in his division or in the jr. middle (where he has promised to move) and he is up there with the top-5.

Ricardo Mayorga is definitely good for boxing. He is a colourful character that interests audiences, he always gives his best in the ring and his fights are exciting and most of all, he has skills to match his antics. With Mayorga the boxing world has gotten a new, interesting top player and I already wait eagerly his next move.

Comments/questions: janneromppainen@hotmail.com

0 comments
 


Bookmark and Share

 

If you detect any issues with the legality of this site, problems are always unintentional and will be corrected with notification.
The views and opinions of all writers expressed on eastsideboxing.com do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Management.
Copyright © 2001- 2015 East Side Boxing.com - Privacy Policy