Background and career
Ricardo Antonio Mayorga Perez (born October 3, 1973) is a Nicaraguan former professional boxer and former mixed martial artist. In boxing he is a former two-weight world champion, having held the unified WBA (Unified), WBC, Ring magazine, and lineal welterweight titles in 2003, and the WBC super welterweight title from 2005 to 2006. Mayorga first became well known to boxing fans upon being featured on the cover of The Ring's December 2003 issue, entitled "The craziest man in the sport: Mayorga lights up boxing." He has since maintained this infamous reputation with his relentless trash-talk in the build-up to most of his fights, as well as his smoking and drinking habits outside the ring.
After defending the title against Larry Marks, Andrew Lewis took on Mayorga. The bout ended in the 2nd round and was ruled a No Contest due to a nasty cut on Lewis caused by accidental headbutt. Lewis's lost the title in a rematch to Mayorga in 2002 via 5th-round TKO.
In January 2003, Vernon Forrest (35–0–0) fought Mayorga. Mayorga was a mostly unknown fringe contender from Nicaragua and few gave him a chance to win against the significantly bigger and stronger Forrest. Mayorga shocked the world when he easily dominated Forrest, dropping him once in the 1st round and again in the 3rd round. The referee would call off the fight after the second knockdown, as Forrest was visibly dazed and unable to get his footing. Forrest would rematch Mayorga six months later, losing again, this time by a majority decision. The bout was close and competitive, with Mayorga mostly chasing Forrest around the ring while Forrest was content to fight from the outside.
Cory Spinks (31–2–0) rose to boxing stardom by unifying the WBC, WBA, IBF, and The Ring lineal welterweight titles on December 13, 2003, when he defeated Mayorga by majority decision. Spinks was a 5 to 1 underdog going into the fight with Mayorga. The judges scored the fight 114–112, 117–109, 114-114, favoring Spinks.
Félix Trinidad (41–1–0) announced a comeback on March 2, 2004. On October 2, 2004, he fought against Mayorga, in Madison Square Garden. Early in the 1st round Mayorga was on the offensive connecting several combinations, later in the round Trinidad connected some punches to his opponent's face. Mayorga reacted defiantly while lowering his defense, which Trinidad used to continue the offensive during the closing seconds. In the 2nd round, Trinidad continued connecting with combinations to Mayorga's face which caused him to bleed from his nose; the round concluded with both fighters exchanging punches. In the 3rd round, Mayorga attempted to counter with punches to the body but did not do significant damage to his opponent, however later in the round one of these punches made Trinidad lose his balance and touch the floor with one glove which the referee counted as a knockdown. In the 4th round, both boxers traded hard combinations. In the 5th round, Trinidad displayed control of the offense's tempo injuring Mayorga and opening a cut under one of his eyes. This pattern continued in the 6th and 7th round, and the cut on Mayorga's face began to swell. In the 8th round, Trinidad scored several knockdowns, Mayorga continued after two knockdowns, but lost by technical knockout following a third knockdown.
Oscar De La Hoya (37–4-0) took a layoff of 20 months before signing to fight Mayorga. In the buildup to the fight, Mayorga insulted everything from De La Hoya's sexuality to his wife and child, but when they fought on May 6, 2006, De La Hoya knocked Mayorga down in the first minute of the fight with a left hook. De La Hoya knocked him out in the 6th round to take his tenth world title.
