Forrest killed

Poacher

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Police: Ex-Champ Shot to Death

Recent WBC junior middleweight champion and 1992 U.S. Olympian Vernon Forrest was shot and killed Saturday night during an attempted carjacking, WSB Radio in Atlanta has reported, citing a police spokesman.

David Livingston/Getty ImagesVernon Forrest, a recent WBC junior middleweight champion, was killed Saturday as he chased at least two men who had tried to steal his car, police said.

Forrest, whose title was vacated in May amid an indefinite rib injury, was shot seven or eight times as he chased at least two men who had tried to steal his Jaguar as he put air in his tires at an Atlanta gas station, Lt. Keith Meadows said, according to the radio station.

But Forrest had a gun and confronted the men, police said.

"The victim and suspect became involved in a brief foot chase," Lt. Meadows said. "At some point, gunfire was exchanged between the two of them. The victim was shot at least once in the head."

Forrest, 38, was fatally wounded by two semi-automatic weapons, according to police.

"At this point we have a general description of at least two black males driving a red Monte Carlo," Meadows said, according to the report.

Police said the suspects likely didn't know Forrest, whose girlfriend's young son was in the car when he was shot.

Forrest, and Sergio Martinez, 34, were scheduled to fight Aug. 1 on Showtime.

However, Forrest, who hadn't fought since regaining the belt from Sergio Mora in a September rematch, suffered the rib injury training for an April tune-up fight against Jason LeHoullier.

Forrest, who had a 41-3 career record with 29 knockouts, withdrew from that fight and still hadn't recovered enough to go through with the fight against Martinez.



What caught my eye about this article (aside from it being about yet another black meeting a violent end) was the "...was fatally wounded by two semi-automatic weapons..." line. Yes, the guns got up all by themselves and killed him. The media loves to go into passive voice when talking about gun deaths. As if people had nothing to do with it. Joke.
 

Charles Martel

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Tragic death.

Vernon Forrest seemed to be a decent guy, he never seemed to be a low-class trashtalker like Toney and Haye nor a crackhead like McCall and Tarver. He created a charity called Destiny's Child to help adults with learning disabilities.

Just recently I re-watched the video of Forrest being dominated by Kostya Tszyu (who is 3/4 white and 1/4 Korean) in the light welterweight final, 1991 world amateurs.
 

Westside

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Parody your right Vernon was a decent guy for the most part. However, I do remember his first fight with Mayorga. Coming into the ring he had a large hoodlum entourage that included Jerome Bettis the fatback running back for the Steelers. They were all yelling and whupping it up to some nonsensical rap song. I think Vernon got carried away with his new found fame and subsequently got brutally KO'd by Mayorga. When Vernon was focused he was a pretty good fighter. His first win over cheater Mosely was a great win for him. Rest In Peace.
 

Taco

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Semi-automatic doesn't mean the guns have minds of their own. Semi-auto guns means they're guns that everytime you pull the trigger, it shoots one bullet even if you hold the trigger down. This is opposed to a fully automatic weapon, where when you hold the trigger down it will shoot until the clip is out.
 

White Shogun

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Taco said:
Semi-automatic doesn't mean the guns have minds of their own. Semi-auto guns means they're guns that everytime you pull the trigger, it shoots one bullet even if you hold the trigger down. This is opposed to a fully automatic weapon, where when you hold the trigger down it will shoot until the clip is out.

I think he knows what it means. I believe his comment was to point out that the article said he was fatally wounded by 'semi-automatic weapons', as though the guns themselves rose up and shot him. A more grammatically correct and less anti-gun way of describing what happened would be to say, 'Vernon's assailants shot him with semi-automatic weapons,' or 'He was shot by two men using semi-automatic weapons..'

The way I read it, he pursued the men to keep them from taking the car with the child in it. I'm not sure though.
 

white is right

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This happens way too much in boxing. Can any boxer die in his bed at a ripe old age? From what I have read Forrest was a good guy and by boxing standards he was Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Theresa rolled into one. The only bad thing I noticed about him was the hype leading up to his rematch with Mora where he got pretty rude and abrasive during interviews. Anway RIP....Edited by: white is right
 

Liverlips

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Seemed like a good guy who fought very infrequently. This is the summer of the fallen athletes: McNair, Arguello, Gatti and now Forest. R.I.P.
 

WHITE NOISE

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didn't Forest fight Gotti in an epic battle? I seem to remember them having a pretty good bout with each other. Maybe Vernon chased the vehicle because the child was in it.
 

Westside

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Forest never fought Gatti. He fought another black guy at 135 lbs that looked like Forrest. His name escape me right now, don't feel like looking it up.
 
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