Vernon Forrest vs Michele Piccirillo

Vernon Forrest retained his WBC world super welterweight championship by stopping Michele Piccirillo at 2:21 of the eleventh round at Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, on Saturday, December 1, 2007. The Italian challenger went down in the sixth, ninth and eleventh rounds, injuring his right ankle in the final fall. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. ended the contest with Piccirillo on the canvas. Forrest, weighing 153 pounds against the challenger’s 152, was making his first defence of the championship.

Forrest had won the vacant title by outpointing Carlos Baldomir in July. Piccirillo, a former IBF welterweight champion, had previously challenged unsuccessfully for the WBC championship against Ricardo Mayorga in 2005. Since then, he had won the European title at the higher weight and defended it against Luca Messi and Michael Jones. His experience and established jab offered a sound basis for another challenge, but Forrest’s heavier right hand proved the principal difference between them. The bout formed part of a Gary Shaw promotion televised by Showtime, alongside appearances by Antonio Tarver and Nonito Donaire.

Both men began by trying to establish their left hands. Piccirillo doubled and trebled his jab, while Forrest used his own to prepare the right. The champion became more aggressive in the second, putting punches together to the body and head and following the retreating challenger. Piccirillo answered with jabs and occasional straight rights, but Forrest was able to land combinations and move away from the counters. The exchanges became rougher towards the close of the fifth, when they worked at close quarters, attacked the body and landed punches around the belt line.

Forrest increased the pressure in the sixth. Left hooks drove Piccirillo towards the ropes, where further punches to the head and body followed. Late in the round, an overhand right caught the challenger towards the back of the head and sent him down. The position of the blow made the knockdown contentious, but Mercante accepted it and administered the count. Piccirillo continued, although the fall added to the advantage Forrest had already established through his more damaging punching.

Piccirillo responded with useful counterpunches in the seventh, but Forrest answered with another firm right and continued to land the heavier blows. The challenger had a better eighth, using his jab while Forrest’s output declined. Near the end of the round, a low left from the champion interrupted the action. Mercante allowed Piccirillo time to recover and warned Forrest. There was further disorder at the bell, when both men continued punching, and the referee had to separate them. All three judges awarded Piccirillo the round, but his improvement did not last into the ninth.

Forrest resumed his attack behind the jab and again found the opening for his right hand. The punch dropped Piccirillo onto his hands and knees. He rose slowly and was permitted to continue, though his legs were unsteady and a cut above his left eye was bleeding by the time he returned to his corner. He withstood further punishment in the tenth without recovering control of the contest. Through ten completed rounds, Massimo Barrovecchio, Steve Weisfeld and Jack Woodburn each had Forrest ahead 98-90. Each judge had given the challenger only two rounds, with the two knockdowns further widening the difference.

The eleventh began with both men exchanging combinations, Forrest again answering Piccirillo’s work with the stronger punches. A succession of lefts and rights drove the challenger back towards the ropes before another right sent him down for the third time. His right leg folded beneath him as he fell, injuring his ankle, and Mercante stopped the fight. Piccirillo subsequently required assistance and was taken to hospital for examination. Forrest had completed the first defence of his championship and secured his fifth consecutive victory since returning to boxing in 2005. The challenger had continued to answer throughout much of the contest, but his jab and resistance had been insufficient against the champion’s sustained pressure and repeated right hands.

I’ve always rated a fighter who makes his jab serve a purpose, and Forrest did that here. Having outboxed Baldomir to win the title, he kept Piccirillo occupied with the left before bringing the right through. Piccirillo could jab himself, but Vernon’s heavier combinations settled who was in charge. That accuracy is what I enjoy watching: punches prepared properly, rather than thrown hopefully.

I wasn’t happy with the first knockdown. The right landed behind the head, and Piccirillo deserved better from the referee. But that doesn’t make the overall result doubtful. He fought back, particularly in the eighth, then Forrest dropped him again in the ninth and finished him in the eleventh. The ankle injury made the final fall worse, but the punches put him there. A convincing defence, though beating Piccirillo alone wasn’t enough to establish Forrest as the division’s best.