By Will "The Thrill" Trillo
Photos: "Big" Joe
Jr. Middleweight Elco Garcia (18-4,8 KO's)
was a tough and game opponent for Vernon Forrest (37-2,27
KO'S) in The Pechanga Casino on Friday night, but make no
mistake about it, Forrest was in command of this one from the
get go, and although the crowd jumped on the game opponents
bandwagon, no amount of cheering was going to change the judges
scorecards. Going into the 10th round Vernon was ahead on two
judges scores by tallies of 89-83 while one other judge saw it
for Vernon 88-84. In other words, Vernon was darn near pitching
a shutout on two cards and only a KO by Garcia would have
snatched this victory away from Forrest, and that wasn't going
to happen.
But what did take place in round ten was
just what the crowd needed to bolster their already misguided
cheers for Elco.
With just a bout a minute left to go both
fighters launched punches that looked like they landed and then
Vernon attempted to double up, only to overshoot and go down
with the follow through, what looked to be a knockdown by many
was just an off balance slip and nothing more. But while the ref
was trying to figure out what exactly went on as well, Forrest
jumped to his feet and made his way across the ring landing two
hooks that sent Garcia down. The ref, who by then had assumed
control of the fight, ushered Forrest to a neutral corner and
started his count over the fallen fighter, but quickly waved it
off, sending the crowd into an unwarranted tizzy. Garcia did
seem to be OK, but with the fight nine rounds in and the fact
that there was no way Garcia could pull this one out, the ref
made the safe decision, albeit unpopular.
Immediately after the fight Vernon said
after the slip he got up and the ref didn't do anything so
Vernon just went back to doing his job, that being landing
punches. The crowd was not happy, Garcia's corner was upset, but
no one can say that Vernon did not deserve the victory.
Amid some gibberish seen on other websites,
and less than 24 hours after the bout, Boxing2005 spoke with
Vernon and got his view of how the 10th round went down.
Once again, if you want rumors and
speculation, go check those other sites, they are full of it,
literally! If you want to go straight to the source, you have
logged onto the right site.
