After reading that Sergio Mora plans on moving down to the junior middleweight division, Ishe Smith wants to avenge the only loss of his career by fighting Mora on next year's Cinco De Mayo boxing card, to be headlined by Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.  "Everyone knows that my loss to Mora was highly controversial, there is no better scenario for him to make things right and give me my rematch.  This boxing card has the potential to be the highest grossing PPV boxing match ever, and I think it's only right that we do it again on this card.  We both have good promoters and it is my belief that Sergio and I have a huge following from The Contender.  Oscar knows how it feels to lose a fight by spilt decision with millions of people watching, the only difference is that no one ever had the chance to see the real fight between Sergio and myself." [Editor: The Mora-Smith fight was part of the Contender Reality show and NBC only aired portions of the contest, thus making it impossible for viewers to form an opinion of who deserved the decision.]

Mora went on to win The Contender, with Smith giving him his closest fight of the series.  After The Contender, Mora has won three in a row and Smith has won two in a row and moved to a new promoter.  With the notoriety both received from the show and the fact that this is a Cinco De Mayo boxing card, a rematch would be an intriguing match-up between bitter rivals.  Smith said, "Look, I don't have anything against Sergio Mora, he just look's at our fight one way and I view it another way, boxing is a business, and to me this is a good business move for both promoters, and I get a chance at redemption.  By no means am I going to slack off in the beginning of the year if this fight happens, I still want Verno Phillips next year, and Eric Gomez knows my desire to fight the best the junior middleweight division has to offer, but this fight is about redemption, and allowing me to sleep peacefully again at night.  The ball is in their court in allowing Sergio to fight me.  I know that this is a fight that my team would love to take, because of the redemption, it would give me as a fighter. Oscar and Sergio have been fighting for the pride of East Los Angeles, all of their careers, and Oscar has proven himself, let's just hope Sergio has as much balls as Oscar!"