Mayfield vs Forbes (6/17) Espn2 Friday night fights has a few interesting fights tonight. The opening fight? features Karim Mayfield vs Steve Forbes. Forbes held the belt at 130 pounds a decade ago. This fight is at 147. Forbes was 2 pounds overweight at the weigh in. I cannot find any photos from the weigh in.
Mayfield's claim to fame is that he sparred with Pacquiao. From what I could gather, it didn't last all that long. Mayfield is a muscular guy that seems to throw crude punches; mostly hooks. He didn't seem to have a jab in the limited video I could find of him, had poor footwork and even though he calls himself Hard Hitta (maybe he's talking about a bong) he has 2 KO's in his last eight fights and those fights where against tomato cans or worse. He does have that undefeated record but has only been fight for 5 years and will be 31 this year.
Forbes, 34, has become a gatekeeper. He has fought and lost 6 of his last 9 but mostly to guys well above tomato cans. Including De la Hoya and Berto among other quality fighters. He did have a bad loss to a journeymen a few fights ago. Last time out he lost via Technical decision in the 6th round. The fight was stopped due to a cut caused by a unintentional headbutt. He was down 2 points to JO JO Dan. Dan is a very top level fighter.
So we have a guy who's beaten no one of quality, against a fading former champion coming in over weight.
At this stage, I'm going with Forbes. The hype around Mayfield is bizarre. He looks like a low level fighter to me. Maybe some of the unavailable video of him decisioning tomato cans could have changed my mind.
1 unit +140 on Steve Forbes
GL
