Thaindian News

It is said, a born fighter fights to his very last breath, only in the case of ace boxer Vernon Forrest, it tuned out to be a case that was tragically literal, when he breathed his last confronting carjackers whose bullets he eventually succumbed to, on Saturday night at Atlanta.

According to statements made by the Atlanta police authorities, the 38 year-old boxing champion had stopped at a gas station to get the tyres of his Jaguar pumped, when two men with semi-automatic weapons attempted to take over the vehicle. Apparently, Forrest’s girlfriend’s young son was also with him when the incident occurred. Reportedly, Forrest who also happened to be in possession of a weapon, refused to give in, and confronted his carjackers, with a brief foot chase ensuing that ended in the exchange of gunfire.

The assailants fled the scene, but not before having shot Forrest more than six times. According to the preliminary autopsy report by, the Fulton County medical examiner Michele Strauffenberg, out of all the firings, he was shot “at least once in the head”, and the death was confirmed to be homicide owing to “multiple gunshot wounds involving the torso and the thigh”.

The death of the golden-gloved boxer who had become legendary for his unanimous-decision win over the then invincible Shane Mosley in 2002 and again in 2008 over Sergio Mora among others, has come as a blow to already grieving boxing fans who are still in mourning over the recent untimely demise of yet another pugilistic great, Arturo Gatti, making it all too painfully clear, that the violence within the sport has been harshly overpowered by the violence outside it’s ring.