PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif. -- Ricardo Mayorga had just won the biggest fight of his life and was outside the ballroom signing autographs and having a smoke.

Pretty soon, he was going to have a few beers, too.

It's good to be king, but Mayorga didn't need much excuse to party anyway. Now he's king of the welterweight division after knocking out previously undefeated Vernon Forrest to unify two parts of the 147-pound title Saturday night.

Not too may people believed the 6-1 underdog when he promised before the fight that he would beat Forrest "like a man whips a boy." They became believers after the hard-punching, fun-loving Nicaraguan posted his second straight championship upset.

"In my country, women give birth to men," Mayorga said.

Mayorga capitalized on a poor decision by Forrest to trade punches with a big puncher.

One of those punches landed in the third round, a right hand that clipped the chin of Forrest and sent him falling into the ropes. Forrest managed to get up but was out on his feet as referee Marty Denkin stopped the fight at 2:06 of the third round.

Forrest hadn't lost in a decade and 35 fights as a pro. He had beaten Shane Mosley twice last year to be the fighter of the year in many camps.

Now he was trying to figure out how he could lose to a chain-smoking fighter who was completely unknown before he knocked out Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis to win the WBA crown in his last fight.

"I wanted to show I could box, fight and bang," Forrest said. "I got caught but they stopped it too quickly."

Forrest didn't complain at the time, though, and it's doubtful he would have lasted long hurt against a big puncher. He had also been knocked down in the first round, though it appeared more of a slip.

The loss was all that more shocking because HBO had invested in a six-fight contract with Forrest after he beat Mosley. This was the first fight of the contract, and Forrest decided to try and unify the title with it.

Luckily for Forrest, his advisers were smart enough to put a rematch clause in the deal, and he wants it right away. The loss, however, might turn into a good thing for Forrest because he might be able to get his name known a bit more in the rematch.

Despite beating Mosley twice, Forrest has labored with little recognition. He won all his fights, but was too methodical in doing so to gain much of a fan base.

Mayorga, on the other hand, is everything Forrest isn't. He held the ring ropes for Forrest to enter the ring, then almost punched him through them.

Mayorga says funny things, punches hard and seems to enjoy everything he's doing. He's a breath of fresh air for boxing, which badly needs a marketable character.

Promoter Don King didn't know what he had before, but he does now. He plans to take Mayorga to Nicaragua for a victory parade, then let him have some fun.

"This is a man who is going to be a superstar," King said.

King is the master of overstatement, but Mayorga definitely has a future.

"I'm a winner," Mayorga said, kissing his bicep before taking another drag of his cigarette.

Indeed he is.