By Steve Ninvalle in New York
Stabroek News
May 14, 2001

After two unregistered trips to the canvas Raul Frank's `Midnight train to Georgia', pulled slowly out of Madison Square Garden Saturday night minus Vernon Forrest, whom he had promised would have been on it.

The latter captured the vacant International Boxing Federation welterweight title following a 12-round unanimous decision over Frank on the Felix Trinidad versus William Joppy undercard. Two referees saw the fight 118-110 while the other had Frank winning not a single round, scoring the bout 120-108 in Forrest's favour.

Attempting to become the second Guyanese to win a world title a determined and game Frank was out hustled by the more hungry American who kept his unbeaten winning streak and dreams of bigger paydays in tact.

However, the Guyanese exhibited a rock solid chin and excellent physical condition in what could be labelled a good defeat. Throughout the bout Forrest, the last man to beat WBC champion `Sugar' Shane Mosley, connected with more telling combinations and ended throwing 693 punches and landing 261. In comparison Frank threw 559 punches and landed 196.

Taking the ring to Topac Shakur's `Till the end of Time', Forrest, who at 6" 1' is the tallest current welterweight champion, went to work on his opponent's body from the opening round.

By the second stanza the fighters had their first toe-to-toe exchange with the cautious Frank beginning to find the target. Forrest replied to a stinging right cross from Frank with an equally effective right/left combination to end the third round. The ensuing three rounds proved Frank's best of the evening. In the fifth a vicious right to the body hurt Forrest, forcing him to hold. The next round saw Frank's jab at work and the former number one ranked IBF welterweight seemed on the verge of taking control. However, the 29-year-old Forrest bounced back to take round seven after stunning Frank with a right hook and following up with pepper-laced combinations.

With the fight aging, Frank resorted to one punch combinations while Forrest kept pressuring and landed more. Local boxing technician Maurice `Bizzy' Boyce conceded that his Godson had been convincingly beaten. "Frank applied the wrong style of fighting. It was all right when he was jabbing but he needed to use more right hands. I think that it was a mistake for him to stop going to the body," Boyce told Stabroek Sport.

"He hurt Forrest in the fourth round and his man was holding. However, he did not continue with the pressure in the other round. That rather let his opponent off. He should have continued with the right hand to the body. It was open to him. In my mind Raul gave away that fight," said Boyce.

Stabroek Sport was unable to contact either the champion or Frank after the fight but was reliably informed that Forrest had gone to see a doctor after complaining of hurting his hand in the third round and cramps in his legs.

Saturday's bout was the second time the two fighters had met in the past year. They first fought on August 26 last but an accidental head butt in round three resulted in a no- contest. Frank's record has dived to 23-4-1 with 12 knockouts.