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Showtime Championship Boxing Recap

December 1, 2007

Foxwoods Casino-Mashantucket, Connecticut

WBC Super Welterweight (154 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Vernon Forrest (39-2, 1 NC, 28 KO's, 153 pounds) (c)vs. Michele Piccirillo (48-3, 1 NC, 30 KO's, 152 pounds)

The champion won this championship in his last match when it was vacant over Carlos Baldomir via 12-round unanimous decision on July 28, 2007 at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington.The previous champion was Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who vacated the championship to move back down to 147 pounds, and as a favor to Baldomir who had given Mayweather a title shot earlier.

Forrest had a decorated amateur career in which he compiled a record of 225-16, including a lopsided decision win over tonight's opponentin 1991 at World Amateur Championships.The champion competed for the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympiad in Barcelona for the United States at 140 pounds. The champion defeated Shane Mosley in the finals of the United States team qualifiers, and was the favorite to win the gold medal. Unfortunately a case of food poisoning before his first match, contributed to a loss in that round.

After the Olympics, the Atlanta, Georgia resident turned pro and won his first 35 decisions through 2002. The highlight matches being 2 blowout decision victories overlongtime rival Mosley in 2002. However, the recent years of Forrest's career have been notable for the number of injuries and surgeries. Since, 2003 the champion has had 2 surgeries on his left shoulder that has had problems since 1994 and one on his left elbow. The injuries could re-occur in this match and become a problem. The champion says he is healthy going into this match, though.

The native of Augusta, Georgia had a strong performance in retiring Baldomir. The champion had a 286-to-157 connect advantage on total punches through the entire match. Showing impressive defensive skills Forrest held Baldomir to a 23% total connect percentage, while landing at 43% total connect percentage.

The champion is the number 4 ranked contender by The Ring to its vacant championship at 154 pounds.

Piccirillo won the bronze medal at 141 pounds at the European Amateur Championships to cap his amateur career, and represented his native Italy at 140 pounds at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, before turning pro on December 18, 1992.

The majority of Piccirillo's professional career has been spent in his native Italy. This is the challenger's fourth match in the United States. In the previous contests he had a record of 1-1, with 1 no contest. Piccirillo has faced top opposition, that includes a victory over Cory Spinks on April 13, 2002 in Italy to win a championship belt at 147 pounds (that Forrest was forced to vacate to take a rematch with Mosley).

Piccirillo's last match was a round victory on points over Sylvain Touzet, on July 31, 2007 in Italy. Touzet was 9-15 going into the match with Piccirillo.

The challenger is unranked by The Ring, but the number 13 ranked boxer at 154 pounds by boxrec.com.

Forrest has the age advantage at 36-years-old, compared to the 37-year-old Piccirillo. The champion has the height advantage standing 5' 10.5" tall, while the challenger stands 5' 9" tall. The Atlanta resident has a reach advantage with a 72" wingspan, and the Italian has a 71.5" wingspan. Forrest failed to make weight on his first attempt, but after sweating off the extra weight for an hour came in under the weight limit. He blames it on not doing his pre-weigh in monitoring on accurate scales, causing him to misjudge his weight and says he is not dehydrated. With neither boxers unofficial weights approaching match time available Forrest should still be the heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

There is an international panel of official judges keeping score of this match from ringside. They hail from Rome, Italy, Montreal, Quebec and New Jersey. The referee is Arthur Mercante, Jr.

Forrest easily wins round 1, 10-9. The champion shows tremendous hand speed winning round 2, 10-9. The boxers' heads came together unintentionally twice in round 2, and it caused Forrest to stop boxing for a few seconds each time. No blood was drawn from either collision, and the challenger appeared unhurt. However, Forrest was checking his mouth the first time, and his forehead the second time. Much better round 3 for the challenger. Piccirillo may have done enough to win round 3, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Forrest leads on my scorecard, 29-28.

Forrest wins round 4, 10-9. All 3 members of the press keeping unofficial score for Showtime and Bernstein have Forrest winning after 4 rounds, by the identical score of 40-36. After 4 rounds, my scorecard has Forrest leading, 39-37. Forrest wins round 5, 10-9. The champion nearly knocked out the referee with a big right hand after the bell when the official had moved in to break up the boxers, because the round was over.The referee immediately went over to the timekeeper and admonished them to ring the bell louder in the future. With 11 seconds to go in round 6, a right hand to finish a strong combination sends Piccirillo to the canvas. Piccirillo is complaining that the punch was an illegal punch to the top of his head, but the referee is ruling a knockdown. A disgusted Piccirillo satisfactorily answers the referee's count following the fifth time in his pro career. The bell ring to end the round, before any more punches can be thrown in the round.Replay shows the Italian is correct. The punch landed on the back of his head. It was probably not an intentional "rabbit" punch, and in that situation, because the punch was not an obvious and intentional foul the referee will usually rule a knockdown. Forrest wins round 6, 10-8. The champion leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 59-54. To make matters worse for the Italian, his nose may be injured. Piccirillo was playing with his nose in round 6, indicating he was having some trouble breathing. There is no blood coming out of his nose, but it could be bleeding slightly into his throat. The challenger's nose appears swollen, and Forrest has found it an easy target for his jab. Through 6 rounds official scoring from press row has Forrest winning on all of the cards: 59-55, 59-55, 60-54

Forrest wins round 7, 10-9. With 34 seconds to go in round 8, Forrest throws a left hook that is very low. The referee stops the action to send Forrest to a neutral corner, and starts Piccirillo's 5 minute injury clock. The referee issues Forrest a warning for hitting below the belt. The official offers encouragement for Piccirillo to continue by telling the Italianto, "Walk it off. Suck it up. Here, walk it off. Walk it off." It is unclear how helpful or comforting those instructions were to the boxer who does not speak English, but after about 45 seconds the challenger was ready to continue. After the bell sounds to end the round, the boxers continue to throw punches again, causing the referee to almost tackle Forrest to get the action stopped. The foul appeared unintentional, both boxers have been throwing punches to the lower abdomen the entire match, and both boxers are responsible for the punches after the bell. Therefore, Forrest is not going to be penalized for being intentionally dirty in tie-break situations on my scorecard. The champion wins round 8, 10-9. Press row scoring after 8 rounds has Forrest ahead on all of the scorecards, 78-74, 78-74, 79-73. Bernstein has Forrest winning after 8 rounds, 80-71. After 8 rounds my scorecard has Forrest winning the match, 79-72. A big right hand from Forrest sends Piccirillo falling onto the champion then onto all four's on the mat with 1:10 to go in round 9. This was a legit knockdown. The referee asks the challenger to walk towards him, but the Italian takes a few step backwards. That may be part of the language barrier problems, but the challenger's legs are not solidly underneath him, when the referee allows the match to continue. Piccirillo makes it out of round 9, but he now has a cut over his left eye. The doctor is being sent to take a look at the challenger after the round. Forrest wins round 9, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 89-70.

The champion takes round 10 off, but still wins it, 10-9. The referee was encouraging the boxers to do something in the round, because it resembled round 5 of Tim Sylvia vs. Jeff Monson. (It was not as awful as that round though, but neither is dental surgery.) A left-right combination with 40 seconds to go in round 11 sends the challenger quickly to his back on the canvas, with his upper body falling between the first and second ropes. The referee immediately jumps in to stop the match without a count being applied, and tells the challenger to stay on the mat until medical attention gets there. It appears the way Piccirillo's legs buckled when he went down backwards on the knockdown the Italian may have badly injured his right ankle, similar to how Mirko Cro Cop injured his leg in the match with Gabriel Gonzaga. The doctor does not speak Italian, and this is creating problems with him getting medical attention. The ankle injury appears far worse, and a much more immediate problem then the repeated blows to the head. Replays will give people who saw the Cro Cop injury deja vu, and the medical people suspect the ankle is indeed broken.

The official result from the "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr.: 2:21 into round number 11 the referee has stopped the contest, making the winner by technical knockout, and still WBC Super Welterweight Champion of the World, Vernon "The Viper" Forrest. The win moves Forrest to 40-2 with 1 no contest, and 29 of his wins coming by way of knockout.

The stretcher is now being brought out to take Piccirillo safely from the ring. This injury may end his boxing career.

In Forrest's post match interview he gave his performance a B+, which is probably the right grade. The champion wants to face Ricardo Mayorga, who has given Forrest hisonly 2 pro losses, next. Forrest says the difference this time in a match with Mayorga is that he (Forrest) would come into the match healthy.

All of the official judges had the match scored for Forrest at the time of the stoppage the same, 98-90.

Forrest looked very good in this performance. He had an exceptionally high workrate in every round, except the tenth, and landed at a great percentage.The champion is much younger in the ring then he is numerically, because of all the time he was forced to take off for injuries. However, Forrest needs to be in competition frequently, before his boxing skills decline to maximize the good pay days he can achieve.

If Piccirillo is able to continue boxing, he should be able to continue beating good European boxers in Italy for nice paydays. However, at his age, and with such a severe injury, retirement seems a near certainty.

The match should be skipped, in particular for the ugly finish.