Sergio Mora

He was to fight Kassim Ouma (25-3-1 15 Kos) in a middleweight bout on September 15, 2007.

It was to be televised on HBO as one of the undercard bouts supporting the main event, Márquez vs.

Barrios.

However, the event was canceled after Marquez suffered an injury during training.

Sergio Mora (born December 4, 1980) is an American former professional boxer.

He is a former WBC light middleweight champion, and twice challenged for the WBA (Regular) middleweight title.

He was the first winner of NBC's The Contender series.

Mora, who is of Mexican descent, was raised without a father.

Sergio lived in an East Los Angeles apartment downstairs from the apartment where his mother lived.

He boxed as a way to lift him and his family to a better standard of living.

Sergio is a class of 1997 alumni of Schurr High School in Montebello, California.

As an amateur, he had a record of 40 wins and 10 losses, losing on points in the quarterfinals of the 1998 national Golden Gloves, the semifinals of the 1999 U.S. national championships, and in the challengers' bracket final of the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials.

He is the champion of reality TV show The Contender.

The show was structured as a single elimination tournament between middleweight boxers.

Mora entered the show with a 12-0 record.

On the first fight of the show, Mora defeated Najai Turpin, a contestant who later committed suicide.

In the Quarter Finals he was put up against the favored Ishe Smith, beating him to reach the semifinals.

He then fought Jesse Brinkley and defeated him after seven rounds, earning a place to box against Peter Manfredo in the final.

In the final fight Mora defeated Manfredo in a seven-round unanimous decision to become the show's champion.

Months later, he defeated Manfredo by split decision in an 8-round rematch.

It was rumoured that Mora was to fight WBC and WBO middleweight title holder Jermain Taylor at some point during 2007.

However, on March 15, 2007, Mora turned down a seven figure fight against Taylor that would have taken place in Memphis, Tennessee, which Mora felt was too close to Taylor's home of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mora felt that if the fight were to go to the scorecards, the judges would favour Taylor.

With only 18 career bouts at the time, Mora also felt he lacked experience to challenge for a world title.

Mora made his return to the ring after 14 months against Elvin Ayala on October 16, 2007, at The Home Depot Center.

On January 11, 2008, Sergio Mora stopped Rito Ruvalcaba in the sixth round of their scheduled 10-round middleweight fight at the Casino Morongo.

Mora was behind on two of three judges' scorecards entering the sixth round.

He hurt Ruvalcaba with a combination, drove him to the ropes and landed another left hand, at which point the referee stopped the fight.

Ruvalcaba was still punching at the time of the stoppage, leading to some controversy.

On June 7, 2008, Mora defeated Vernon Forrest via a 12-round majority decision to become the WBC super welterweight champion.

In the build-up to the fight, Forrest threatened to send Mora "out on a stretcher" and referred to him as the "pretender" (parodying "Contender").

However, Mora succeeded in pulling off the upset victory.

Forrest took an early lead in what began as a tactical bout, working behind a left jab and landing right hands.

Mora started to force his way into the fight in the fourth round, throwing hard punches to Forrest's body and consistently outworking the defending champion.

Mora ultimately won a majority decision, with scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112.

After the fight, Forrest said that he had taken Mora lightly and cited that he did not train properly for the fight, resulting in his lack of punches thrown in the match.

Forrest (41-3) reclaimed his WBC 154-pound title on September 14, 2008, defeating Mora via unanimous decision.

Forrest scored a knock down in round seven, had Mora in trouble in round nine and on his back foot for a majority of the bout.

Mora had problems making weight for the rematch, having to lose two pounds after failing the initial weigh-in, and after the fight said that he did not expect the quick turnaround on the rematch clause and had needed more time to make the weight properly, resulting in his poor performance.

The 10-round fight ended in a split draw as Ayala outworked Mora in the first half of the fight, but Mora rallied the 2nd half of the fight.