This Has Got To Stop
posted by Large
This trend whereby boxing loses some of its most beloved fighters, another one seemingly every week, to early, violent death, is really getting disturbing. The latest victim is Vernon Forrest, dead at the age of 38, killed last night during an attempted carjacking while he was filling the tires of his Jaguar in Atlanta. Two punks carrying pistols tried to boost Vernon’s car, but evidently he pulled his own piece on them and chased them down the street. Gunshots were exchanged and he took one in the head. The punks both escaped.
Forrest wasn’t an icon of boxing at the level of Gatti or Arguello, but he was known to be one of the sport’s best citizens, tireless when it came to charity work for kids and the mentally challenged.
Though he had a long and successful career in which he competed in the Olympics and won three world titles in two different weight classes, Vernon nevertheless always will be remembered as something of a hard luck story. A favorite to win a gold medal in Barcelona, he got a dose of food poisoning before his first-round bout and lost unceremoniously. Later, on the cusp of mega-stardom after his two signature victories over Shane Mosley in 2002, he was stopped in the third round by Ricardo Mayorga in only the first fight of a brand-new multi-fight deal with HBO. By the time of the rematch, Forrest already was struggling with the left shoulder and elbow problems that would force him to have multiple surgeries and stay out of the ring for two years during his prime. After Mayorga beat him a second time, the surgeries began, and his all-too-brief stint on the A-list was over.
He fought well when he returned to the ring, beat Ike Quartey in an exciting fight in August of 2006 and then won the WBC junior middleweight belt from Carlos Baldomir in 2007, a title he lost and then won back from Sergio Mora last year.
Inactive since that second Mora fight in September of ’08, there had been some talk of him matching up with Sergio Martinez, which would have been an entertaining fight for sure. But now he’s dead, a victim of some random thuggery and his own instinct to fight back. R.I.P. Vernon and God bless. As for the rest of you fighters out there, for Pete’s sake, be safe and watch your back, because some very nasty vibe is loose in the atmosphere lately and it seems to have the best of the boxing world in its crosshairs.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:43 am
This is just horrible. And yes, This has got to stop.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:46 am
In other sad news: Union in Soho has closed its doors. For those of you who aren’t NY’ers….well Union was the first store to bring the Hip Hop vibe some 20 years ago to SoHo. In any case, sad news for they carried some of the famous NOMAS shirts.
July 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
this is getting ridiculous. not only just boxers dropping like flies… but all these other celebs as well. that’s gotta be double digit celeb deaths this summer. the fuck is going on?
July 26th, 2009 at 11:10 am
RIP Vernon. Him beating Mosley was one of the first US-fights I saw.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
unfortunately for me my last memory of vernon was vernon/mora 1 at mohegan sun…and it really killed the excitement that was in the air after williams knocked quintana out
this shit is a shame
July 27th, 2009 at 11:06 am
The few times I met Vernon – he was super nice. When he fought Mosley the first time, my fighter Terronn Millett was in the co-feature at the Garden against another of the recently slain – Arturo Gatti. I remember Vernon having a huge entourage and seeming like an a-hole – but when I met him and spoke to him, he was cool as hell.
He didn’t just beat Shane that night either, he gave him a beating. In almost every round he landed big shots to Shane – had him crying out in pain and spitting his mouthpiece after a body shot in the later rounds. Vernon was a bad boy in the ring.
I’ll always remember Vernon as the guy who came out of one of the most competitive weight divisions ever in the Olympic Trials – in 1992. The 139 lb. class in those trials produced four world champions – Forrest, Mosley, Millett and Stevie Johnston – and one world title challenger Robert Frazier. Vernon beat Frazier in the quarters, Mosley in the semis and Johnston in the trials finals and in the box-offs (Millett lost to Johnston in the semis). The Viper then got sick during the 1992 games and lost to a scrub – Peter Richardson from GB. Damn shame – since Tszyu had already turned pro, Vernon definitely could have won gold.
The way he was killed really makes me sick. Gunned down because he had a nice car. The fact that his son was in the back seat to witness it all is friggin’ horrific. I thought Buddy McGirt put it best – now a boy won’t have a father because someone wanted to steal something. Sometimes it’s just a really shitty world we live in.
RIP Vernon.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Great stuff as always Kurt. It’s great to have you here with us at the Mas.
I didn’t read where his kid was in the backseat. Man… now that I have a kid of my own stories like that make me start crying almost instantly. I haven’t been reading much about it actually since the initial news stories cause the whole things is just so bleak.
Did I know that Terron was your guy? I don’t think I did. Great nickname – Terron the Tramp. That Gatti fight… that did not work out so well for your boy. That was pretty close to his last fight, though, right?
July 27th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Yo Kurt, I just pulled out my Gatti DVD’s and got out the Millett fight. And who do I see whooping it up right behind Terron in the intros? You got a lot of facetime that night boy.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
This is a great sports blog you have. We sports bloggers have to stick together. Wondering if we can exchange links. Let me know what you think.
Jason
July 27th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Kurt- just finished watching Gatti/Millett and my head hurts. My ribs hurt. Man Gatti could go to the body. That must have been painful to watch.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Large,
Yeah Terronn got a pretty bad whoopin’ from Gatti. I was probably closer to Terronn than any fighter I’ve worked with so it was REALLY brutal to watch. If I had it to do over again, I would have jumped in to stop it sooner (which is something I did do in Terronn’s last pro fight against Mike Stewart – three fights after Gatti).
Terronn was never really the same after he won the title against Vince Phillips. He broke his right hand in that fight and a few months later the STL police mangled his left hand (this was some real racial profiling – not the Gatesian kind – lol – he ended up getting a half million dollar verdict for police brutality from the STLPD). He could never make a full fist with his left hand after the STLPD got done with him. He lost the title to Judah and then he managed to cobble together a few wins and get the Gatti fight (which at the time was considered an even money fight). Once I saw Gatti had Buddy in his corner, I knew we were in trouble.
I’ve since read some further details on the Forrest tragedy. Apparently it was his 11-year-old Godson, not his biological son, who was with him. It’s also now being reported that it was a robbery, not a car-jacking. Some guy asked him for some money and when Forrest got out his wallet, the guy pulled a gun and took it. As he tried to get away, Forrest pulled his gun and shots were exchanged. Forrest ran after him but had given up the chase. Apparently, the guy came back and Forrest didn’t see him and the guy shot Forrest in the head and back about six times and then fled. I hope they catch this scumbag – a wallet is not worth a life.
July 29th, 2009 at 6:44 am
The Rooster is the ATL now…they really need to get cops on the streets here. My friend wanted to prove to me how weak the police patrol is here. He drove through 8 stop signs and 4 stoplights and nobody lifted an eye. I’m not saying that this had to do with Vernon’s death…but I would probably carry a gun down here also.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:45 am
So Gatti ruled a suicide and his wife released. Don’t know what to think about that. We’ll never know for sure if true, but it makes me feel worse somehow.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
If it was suicide – how did he get stabbed in the back of the head? Couldn’t have done it himself. This does not sound right at all.
I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end. Like you said Kopper, we’ll never know. If it was his wife, let’s just hope for God’s sake, she doesn’t do it again.
July 30th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Kurt I think in an attempt to be “classy” we should all stop speculating on how Gatti died. The Brazilian Police arrrested Amanda Gonzales immediately after he died and said “there was no way anyone else” could have committed the crime. That’s certainly not showing any favoratism to the hometown girl. However, once they started to investigate the crime and get autopsy results they determined there was no way she could have done it…as a matter of fact they went so far as to say no crime was committed at all. I rememeber how we all rushed to judgement about Richard Jewell in the 1996 Olympic bombing case. He had told people weeks before that he would be a hero at the Olympics. The FBI leaked reports that he was indeed the “lone” bomber, but it wasn’t so. That asshole Eric Rudoplh did it. This appears to be the same kind of story. Something wasn’t right about a 110 lbs girl killing “Thunder Gatti” in his sleep by a purse strap?….c’mon. I have a friend in Brazil who told me if the police did 180 on this one there is no way she did it. Apparently the police never admit they are wrong in Brazil.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Brad – so he hung himself WITH HER PURSE – after stabbing himself in the head with a steak knife, it just seems highly unlikely, no?
BTW this case has almost nothing in common with Richard Jewell. Jewell wasn’t (allegedly) the only one at the scene of the crime. Jewell didn’t have a purse strap that had the victim’s blood all over it – nor did anyone have a knife wound in the back of their head from a steak knife.
http://youbeenblinded.com/arturo-gattis-wife-amanda-rodrigues-held-as-suspect-in-his-murder/3853/amanda-rodrigues-purse-strap
The police initially said her story was inconsistent and the crime scene had been altered. Even the coroner left wiggle room by not ruling out murder. To me, the whole steak knife thing makes the suicide theory seem unlikely. Again – who knows what happened and it doesn’t really matter in the end. He’s gone and his kid is without a father. It’s a damn shame.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:03 am
not change the subject…well yeah to change the subject…cuz i dont wanna dwell on these two tragedies and im not columbo
but heres an intersting tidbit
“Unconfirmed reports that Team Pacquiao is now studying option to buy-out Pacquiao’s contract with Top Rank. The reasons: 1. favoritism of Top Rank with other fighters (as Arum shown towards Cotto, as well as Margarito) 2. deception and dishonesty of terms of contract with Cotto to protect the interest of Pacquiao and 3. unaccounted income from pay-per-view sales during dela Hoya and Hatton fights.
Team Pacquiao is also not happy of the failed negotiations with Mayweather camp leading Floyd to chose Marquez because of Arum. There is supposed to be gentleman’s agreement among members of Mayweather and Pacquiao camps for them to fight each other this fall, but Arum intervenes and wants to dictate the fight in his own terms, etc. Pacquiao was not impressed but Arum offers Cotto to pacify Pacquiao instead. Now, Arum is playing second fiddle to Cotto, just to get him re-signed in Pacquiao’s disadvantage. Arum from the very beginning, knew that Pacquiao is interested in Cotto’s title as said by the WBO President before Pacquiao-Cotto negotiation even starts. Now, Arum is playing dumbfounded about the supposed title fight.
Team Pacquiao realized that Pacquiao, being a free agent, will able to maximize its earnings and will be able to surely dictate his fight’s terms and conditions, like what dela Hoya did.”
absolutely nothing but heresay at this point….but would it be so suprising? i think arum has one more fight with top rank left after cotto….would it be so suprising to see himself try to buy himself out of the last fight should he beat cotto? pulling a similar maneuver as floyd did back in 06? i mean floyd didnt like being a slave…neither did oscar…..
July 31st, 2009 at 4:24 am
Kurt my point with the Richard Jewell case was that we formed an opinion based on what the police told the media. It’s the same thing with the Gatti case. If the police would have reported that he was hung, suspended in a room, would any of us really believe it was his hundred pound girlfriend that did it? (I’ve read stories that there was no steak knife, that was wrongly reported). The police instead said she did it, no one else could have…..except maybe Gatti himself. They have no backtracked and said she “couldn’t have done it.”….she couldn’t possibly get a man that size hanging. Which I believe because I have a hard time hanging my 100 lb. heavybag in my garage….but in the end, you’re right. It really doesn’t matter. He’s gone and another kid is without her father. It could have been worse for the kid, however, if she was without her mother also because of lazy police work.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:58 am
Ricky I don’t what to think of Team Pacquiao. Remember last December when Hatton and Manny agreed to a 50-50 split? Then Manny goes home to the Philippines and says he’s being treated like a slave, he’s wants more money. Arum couldn’t believe it. Either could Golden Boy CEO Richard Schafer. He had agreed to the terms and was about to make 13 million fighting a guy custom made for his style….all very strange. I think several people are in Manny’s ear.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
brad i hear you….i remember the rumors about how pacs team almost ruined the hatton fight…and im hearing they are really angry at arum, and placing blame on him, for cottos belt not being on the line
maybe these guys are starting to think they can run pacs career better without arum(as much i hate arum…that is a bold notion)…maybe they are actually starting to listen to floyd when he talks about “27%”….maybe they see arum as a huge stumbling block in floyd negotiations
July 31st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I think there are far too many people in Pacs ears – and they all mainly think about their pockets. Put Arum aside and there is more money left for them, they think. As you said Ricky – I don’t think they are better off without him.
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