On July 12, 2003, former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest lost a razor-thin majority decision in a rematch with Ricardo Mayorga, the first man to ever defeat him as a professional. In the fourth round of that bout, an extremely confident Mayorga dropped his hands, stuck out his chin and dared Forrest to take his best shot. Naturally, Forrest obliged and connected with a solid combination that got little more than a grin from the brash Nicaraguan. Unfazed, Mayorga invited him to do it again, and again, Forrest connected cleanly, but to no avail. In the end, Mayorga would retain his titles with scores of 116-112, 115-114 and 114-114, leaving Forrest wondering exactly how his opponent was able to absorb some of his best shots right on the chin. Without any logical explanation, Forrest was left with only one conclusion: "He was on something."
Forrest, who stormed out of the ring immediately after the scorecards were read and refused to speak to the media, finally broke his silence a few days after the fight, sharing his thoughts on the bout and Mayorga's performance. "I thought this guy is definitely on something. That's the first thought that came into my mind. The guy put his hands down and put his chin out, and of course I wanted to continue to whack him, and I know that was his way of drawing me into a fight with him. But at the same time, I hit him with some clean shots, and he took it," Forrest would explain in the interview, insinuating that the only way Mayorga could have taken those punches was with the help of some type of performance-enhancing drug. "So the first thought that came into my mind was that he was on something. I would not be surprised if his tests came back dirty."
It was the second time the two men had faced each other inside the ring. In the first bout, Forrest was stopped after three rounds of toe-to-toe action that saw the cigarette-smoking Mayorga walk through his punches with disregard as he battered him into submission. Coming off of that loss and then witnessing Mayorga take his best shots with ease in the rematch, Forrest was so concerned about Mayorga being "on something" that he took his concerns to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "Absolutely. I have not heard back from the Nevada Commission, but I still definitely feel he was on something," he added.
In the end, Mayorga passed all of the required tests of the Commission and both fighters moved on with their careers. In fact, Mayorga would go on to have lucrative bouts against the likes Cory Spinks, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas and Shane Mosley. Forrest's accusations of performance-enhancing drugs were a mere blip on the radar for the career of the wild-swinging, trash-talking, brash and arrogant Ricardo Mayorga. Of course, one has to wonder if Mayorga had a more polite, humble and endearing personality, like that of Manny Pacquiao, would those same accusations have been so easily forgotten.
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