Forrest dominates Baldomir for WBC 154lb Championship!

On Saturday night, in a battle between two former Welterweight Champions, Vernon Forrest won an entertaining unanimous decision over Carlos Baldomir to win the vacant WBC Super Welterweight Championship. The belt was vacated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr, who is moving back down to welterweight to maintain his status as Welterweight Champion.

In the first couple rounds, I wasn't particularly impressed with Forrest. He seemed to be holding back a little with his punches and doing more measuring than anything else. I thought he was being gun shy. But he began to throw more punches, hard and precise punches, from the third round on. Baldomir's punches were coming slower and slower as the rounds progressed.

Forrest punished Baldomir endlessly with left hooks and right crosses. He put on a brilliant display of textbook boxing, frustrating Baldomir and hitting him with some punishing shots. Baldomir has a head of iron, as many of those punches coming from Forrest would've knocked out most super welterweights. Baldomir managed to stun Forrest momentarily in round nine, but while holding Forrest's head down, Forrest hit him with a low blow.

At that point, the referee immediately deducted a point from Forrest. Initially, it appeared as though Forrest hit Baldomir low to get out of trouble and recover from being stunned, but in the replay, it was clear that Baldomir was holding his head down. In the end, it was irrelevant as Forrest had landed enough clean shots and outboxed Baldomir enough to win a lopsided unanimous decision. Scores: 118-109 (twice), 116-111. Boxing Chronicles scored it 117-110 for Forrest, giving Baldomir rounds three and nine (making round round nine a 10-8 round for Baldomir because of the point deduction from Forrest).

Forrest is now the WBC Super Welterweight Champion, in a division that is somewhat dead at this point. Both Oscar De la hoya and Mayweather are moving back down to welterweight. Kassim Ouma has moved up to middleweight. Winky Wright is surely coming back down from 170lbs, but probably not as low as 154lbs.

We shall see who Forrest has to fight at 154lbs. Somebody could come along looking to challenge him for that belt. Maybe a unification match with WBA titlist Joachim Alcine, who recently dethroned Travis Simms? Perhaps another unification with IBF champion Cory Spinks, who recently lost a split decision in a title challenge to Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor and will probably come back down to 154lbs?

Yeah, I'm not sure where Forrest goes from here, other than home to rest for a while before making his next move. I will say that was definitely Forrest's best showing since the Mosley fights in 2002, prior to losing two consecutive fights to Ricardo Mayorga the following year.

Television: HBO Boxing After Dark