BOXING Colorful champion looking to defend welterweight titles

Ricardo Mayorga gets the job done in the ring, despite having his quirks.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Ricardo Mayorga stuffs chicken in his mouth as he steps on the scales at weigh-ins. He's been known to light a cigarette in the ring.
Sometimes he speeds in his car, and his mouth is usually going 100 mph, too.
That's simply the way he is, take it or leave it, Mayorga says.
"I am a fighter. With or without bad habits, that is what I am. When people like somebody, they accept them the way they really are," said the welterweight champion, who defends his WBC and WBA titles tonight in a rematch against Vernon Forrest.
Hector Perez, cornerman and interpreter for the colorful Mayorga, accepts the boxer the way he is and even seems to delight in the freewheeling fighter's quirks.
One of a kind
"He is a very unique person. He's a handful. Sometimes he talks and does things he is not supposed to do," Perez said. "But when I ask him to do things in the gym, on the road or with sparring, he does it. He is the kind of person who can go three days without sleeping, taking only a little catnap.
"I might get upset with him and he will say, 'OK, what do you want me to do?' I will tell him to go train, and he will do it."
Perez said Mayorga also has a charitable side.
"He gives his money away to people back home that need the money," Perez said. "When he comes into a fight, he wants to be broke so he can fight like he is the challenger. He wants to take care of business back home, not only for his family, but for his friends and neighbors."
Mayorga plans to have a drag racing strip built in Managua, Nicaragua, so the streets will be safer.
"He wants to do this not only for his bad habit, but for other people's bad habit and get them off the street," Perez said. "And he wants to win this fight because he wants to go to a village that has never had lights and ... spend $100,000 so the town can have lights."
The rematch
Mayorga scored a stunning upset Jan. 25, when, as a 6-1 underdog, he knocked out the previously unbeaten Forrest in Temecula, Calif.
Mayorga takes a 24-3-1 record with 22 knockouts into the rematch at the Orleans Hotel against Forrest, who is 35-1 with 26 knockouts.
Forrest was coming off consecutive wins over Shane Mosley when Mayorga stunned him. Forrest has been mostly quiet, skipping interview sessions and conference calls.
He apologized to promoter Don King and to reporters during the week for not being more accessible.
"This fight is very important to my career and I really did not want any distractions," Forrest said. "I have been in camp since April, and I am completely focused."
Mayorga, of course, has done plenty of talking.
"I do not care if Vern Forrest chose to stay away and not help with the promotion," he said. "When someone is scared to fight, they are even scared to talk to reporters. I think it will work against him because it will only inspire me to fight even harder.
"I am going to knock him out in the second round."
Before he fought Forrest in January, Mayorga predicted he would knock him out in the fourth round. Mayorga finished him a round earlier.