Ricardo Mayorga lost the first fight of his professional career and then back-to-back fights five years later. But he hasn't lost since -- and that's 18 fights covering almost five years and including wins against world champions Andrew Lewis and Vernon Forrest.
Saturday in the main event of a Don King-promoted card at the Orleans, Mayorga gets Forrest again in a fight he promises to win within two rounds.
It is, nevertheless, scheduled for 12 rounds and the oddsmakers have Mayorga as an underdog.
"I laugh at them," he said of those who set the line, which at the Orleans is Forrest minus 280 and Mayorga plus 240.
"They thought the first time I beat him was a fluke," he continued. "I respect that opinion, but what matters to me and to my family and to my friends is that they know I'm going to beat him again.
"The way I see it is that he's the racehorse and I'm the jockey, and I'm going to ride him to victory."
Mayorga, 29, is a colorful native of Nicaragua who owns both the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association championships at 147 pounds. Fighting for the second time in Las Vegas but the first as a world champion, he comes across as a genuinely interesting fellow who is enjoying a hot streak and is proud of his successes.
He's 24-3-1 with 22 knockouts, including a KO-3 win against Forrest Jan. 25 in Temecula, Calif., after which he celebrated in the ring with a cigarette and, moments later, a beer.
Forrest, 32, is 35-1 with 26 KOs and arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday after a relatively secluded training camp in Vero Beach, Fla.
"I'm very sure he's scared of me," Mayorga boasts. "Whichever way he comes at me, it doesn't matter because I'm going to knock him out."
Mayorga was nothing like this at the outset of his career, losing his debut fight in 1993 and then consecutive bouts in '98. Asked what prompted his turn-around and ascension, he specified a couple of factors.
"First, I was not that disciplined when I started out," he said through an interpreter. "Second, I didn't fight hard enough. I was fighting only out of hunger.
"But in the last four or five years everything around me has become more stable. The economics for me are better ... I have more discipline. Poverty and hunger drove me to be more disciplined, and they still do."
With a few friends and his training team gathered around him, Mayorga drew a laugh with a follow-up prediction of sorts. "I plan to be boxing a couple more years, then I'll stop being poor," he said. "And I know very well that that's when I'll lose that desire."
But he hasn't lost it yet, which may be trouble for Forrest.
Bettors are anticipating a fairly quick fight, as it's a minus 140 that the fight will not exceed 8 1/2 rounds. It's a plus 120 on the over.
As for the possibility that Forrest will try and stay an arm's length from Mayorga in an attempt to get him into the later rounds, the champion said he'll circumvent the strategy and hunt Forrest down.
"As long as he runs inside the ring, I can catch him," he said. "I'll win this fight.
"I don't give rematches, I retire fighters. They start walking funny after they fight me a couple of times, and Vernon Forrest is going to be like that."
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