HBO Boxing

Vernon Forrest vs. Ricardo Mayorga took place on January 25, 2003, at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California. This professional boxing match, a welterweight title unification bout, features Vernon Forrest defending his WBC and The Ring welterweight titles against WBA Super champion Ricardo Mayorga. Forrest, undefeated at 35-0, enters after dominant decision wins over Shane Mosley, while Mayorga, 23-3-1, comes off a TKO victory over Andrew Lewis to claim the WBA belt.

On June 7, 2003, Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward had a rubber match. Gatti broke his twice-repaired right hand on an uppercut to the hip in the fourth, and he dropped his arm. In the sixth, Gatti dominated the round but got caught with an overhand right to the top of the head a second before the bell rang and went down. The final scorecards read, 96–93, 96–93 and 97–92, in favor of Gatti. The third fight between the two was again named "Fight of the Year" by Ring Magazine.