Tag: Shane Mosley

Happy Trails, “Sugar” Shane Mosley


According to RingTV.com Shane Mosley has officially retired from boxing.

I’ve watched Shane for many years. Since he fought and defeated Philip Holiday for his first world title in 1997. The man was an absolute beast as a lightweight (135 lbs), going 32-0, with 30 knockouts.

Hell, before he lost his first fight in 2002 to Vernon Forrest he had ran his record to a ridiculous 38-0, 35 KO’s.

Simply incredible.

The last few years of his career aren’t something he wants to remember, considering he finished his career 2-4-1 in his last seven fights. Granted those losses were to the likes of Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Manny Pacquiao, and the young stud, Saul Alvarez. Not too shabby, except the last four fight against Floyd, Sergio Mora, Manny, and Alvarez were bad-to-terrible performances.

Being a fan, I will choose to remember him as the warrior he always was. He may have looked those last fights, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.

Shane always brought everything he had to the ring with him. Never lacked effort or motivation.

I will block out his fights against Mayweather, Mora, and Pacquiao in favor of his efforts against Oscar De La Hoya (twice), Antonio Margarito, John John Molina, Jesse James Leija, and Fernando Vargas (twice). All victories.

Mosley finishes his career as a multiple time champion in three different weight classes and with a record of 46-8-1, 39 knockouts.

I hope retirement treats you well Shane.

Ring Kings: Cotto vs. Mayweather


I’m probably more excited than most for this fight. What can I say, I’m a life-long fan of the sport and this sort of event (big PPV matchup between two of the sports best) is something real boxing fans yearn for.

It’s not even the actual fight that gets me all riled up (initially anyway), it’s the build up. The press conferences, the articles, the TV coverage, the weigh-in and then, finally, the “main event of the evening” (said in my best Michael Buffer voice).

When done right, these events collide to build anticipation, an anxiousness that drives you to tell anyone, everyone, “I really cannot wait for this fight…” Or maybe that’s just me. That’s the thing with boxing though. All that build-up, all that talking, all that anticipation and it could all be for naught if the fight is a dud.

A lot of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s (42-0, 26 KO’s) fights are duds these days. It’s mostly a result of his style. A style that he has nearly perfected since moving out of his offensive comfort zone that was 130 lbs. Floyd was never a slugger, but he used to attack, at least try for the kill. He no longer does that. Now he waits. Along with becoming as masterful as you can be defensively, he has become of the greatest counter punchers ever. It all fits into his above 130 lbs style of fighting.

Most of his opponents are forced into a false aggression that usually amounts to very little because when they have a chance to throw, they don’t. The reason being they know how good a counter puncher Floyd is and that he will strike like a viper when given the opportunity. Therein lies what turns his fights from spectacles in the build-up, to dud by the end of the fight. Floyd rarely goes out of his way to be outright offensive and even though everyone he fights knows that aggression is the best way to beat him they refuse to let their hands go when given the opportunity to do so. So Floyd ends up sticking his jab in their face and throwing enough to win every round, while his opponent feints, flinches and flails.

I believe Floyd Mayweather Jr will easily win this fight. My rational brain just keeps telling me there’s no way Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) has what it takes to beat someone so talented.

My emotional heart tells me differently. (This happens often to me.) My rational, logical brain uses reason and common sense, my heart will read into things that aren’t there and imagine, “If he could just do *this* (insert strategy here), he can beat this guy!”

What I have talked myself into this time is that Floyd’s punches, while deadly accurate, don’t hold the power required to discourage Cotto from keeping pressure in his face. I even think Cotto could taste Floyd’s most crisp punch and decide to go balls-to-the-wall after taking the punch and realizing he can absorb what Floyd throws while using his own vaunted body attack.

Cotto is, probably, the best body puncher in boxing. A skill almost no Floyd opponent has successfully applied (to their own detriment). Add that to the fact that Miguel has a very accomplished jab to set up those thudding body shots and we could have ourselves a fight.

If Cotto does manage to degenerate the fight into some sort of war of attrition, how does Floyd handle that? We all know Miguel Cotto has been in more than his fair share of bloody, drag down wars, but Floyd has avoided such fights. In my memory I can only think of two times when Floyd was in real trouble. The first is his first fight with Jose Luis Castillo back in 2002 and in one of his more recent fights against Sugar Shane Mosley. In the second round of his fight with Shane, he took a pair of hard, crisp right hands that shook him and don’t let anyone fool you, he was lucky to survive that round.

My point is that if Miguel Cotto is willing to sacrifice taking punishment to his face in large amounts to beat the shit out of Mayweather’s body, he can turn the fight into something different from a normal Floyd back-pedal fest.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Cotto made this fight close, but I’m going to lean towards the side of common sense and use my brain for my pick; Continue reading “Ring Kings: Cotto vs. Mayweather” →

Did Mosley try to quit?


It seems hard to imagine that Shane Mosley, a fighter most would consider a warrior, would ask out of a fight, but it appears to be true.

On a short 15 minute episode scheduled to appear before Showtime’s Froch vs Johnson and Kessler vs Bouadla double header this Saturday, Mosley clearly states to Naazim Richardson that he wants him to stop the fight.

I realize the PPV match between Mosley and Manny Pacquiao was a month ago now, but this is just shocking to me. I do know that we don’t usually hear every little second and sound bite that goes on in every corner, in every fight. So this could happen more frequently than I perceive it to happen (I doubt it though). The simple matter of the fact is that “Sugar” Shane Mosley asked out of a prize fight.

To say I am disappointed in Shane is an understatement (with the caveat that he wasn’t asking out because of an injury and it didn’t appear that he was).

The Pac Man Cometh


Manny Pacquiao is a bad, bad man. Some think he’s overrated. Some think he’s the best fighter since Sugar Ray Robinson.

I disagree on both accounts, but that still doesn’t change the fact that he has left a field of devastation in his wake.

The world of boxing has been raped and pillaged by this man for the last ~8 years.

Since his last loss (a razor thin unanimous decision loss to Erik Morales on 3/19/2005) Pacquiao has gone 13-0 with seven knockouts. Two of those KO’s sent a borderline Boxing Hall of Famer (Ricky Hatton) and a first ballot, 100% guaranteed, HOFer (Oscar De La Hoya) into retirement in extremely violent fashion.

His fight against Miguel Cotto (whom I did think he was going to beat, but not in the way it happened) was just plain hard to watch. With a gathering of people at my house, including some Puerto Rican friends, all of us were pleading with the ref (aka the TV) to stop the fight. Even Manny had looked at the ref on several occasions in effect saying, “Don’t you think he’s had enough?” He took a man that any boxing fan would describe as a warrior and one of the hardest men in the whole sport and he bludgeoned him. My wife, who enjoys boxing, but is a novice, was disheartened by the referee not stopping the fight. She was covering her face with her hands off and on for the last three rounds of the fight. With blood streaming from at least three different spots on Cotto’s face referee Kenny Bayless finally gave the mercy call in the 12th and final round (a little late in my opinion).

The crowd watching at my house resembled the crowd of British civilians watching William Wallace get tortured, begging for his mercy. That’s a Braveheart reference. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should!

Now on May 7, 2011 Shane Mosley is going to be the next to try and break through Pacquiao’s armor (which appears to be nearly indestructible at this point).

It’s not to say that Manny can’t lose, he can and has lost before, it’s just when you look at his body of work since his last loss and how he has performed under the tutelage of Freddie Roach it’s hard to imagine.

As a fan first, I pray that Sugar Shane can muster even a small amount of his old self. Just a little of what he had against Oscar De La Hoya or even against Antonio Margarito (whom he destroyed).

If Mosley goes into that ring like he did against Sergio Mora? Pacquiao will beat him into a bloody pulp.

I don’t want another Cotto-Pacquiao, which was hard enough to watch just once.

We’ll find out May 7.

Mosley Deserves this Payday


I have watched Shane Mosley fight for half my life. He has been one of my favorite fighters to watch. He always tried and always-showed effort even when it seemed as if that effort would still amount to a loss. That means something to me. I mean there are some fighters that fold their hand as soon as the pot is raised (see Devon Alexander and his pitiful effort in basically quitting against Timothy Bradley).

Say what you want about Shane, but he has never backed down and his record shows it, hell, his last effort against Sergio Mora showed some of the effects of all the punishment he has taken throughout his Hall of Fame career.

 

Wouldn't it be something if Mosley could land a few of these on Manny?

When I say Mosley deserves this payday, I don’t mean to confuse anyone with the fact that this is a bad fight and a terrible matchup, because it’s both of those things. I just mean to say that after all he has given us as boxing fans, all the thrilling fights (both De La Hoya fights, his destructions of Antonio Margarito & Fernando Vargas, and many more…) and all the fights he forced the action in and kept from being boring. He kept those fights from being boring at the expense of actually using his superior talent, which would have led to him fighting more like the most recent incarnation of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Which is to say Shane, unlike Floyd, isn’t afraid to exchange and force the fight and that, more times than not, will lead to a more entertaining fight.

 

(Side note: Remember at one point Shane Mosley was 38-0, 35 KO’s, he was Floyd before Floyd.)

I suppose I just have a soft spot for “Sugar” Shane. This leads me to have a dual personality for the upcoming Manny Pacquiao-Mosley fight (May 7, Showtime PPV).

On one hand I use my brain and the logic it has to tell me that Manny the Great is going to completely overwhelm Shane inside of five rounds resulting in a KO/TKO victory. On the other hand my heart is hoping against all hope that Mosley can do as some all-time greats do and pull that one last great effort out of his hat and not only be competitive in a fight he has no business being competitive in, but actually have a chance to win.

I realize that what my logical brain is telling me is true. I also know that I won’t be able to stop myself, my boxing fan self, from openly rooting for one of my long time favorites being able to bring his ending career one last great fight.

Showtime/CBS get Pacquiao-Mosley


I love HBO’s production of a fight. They are the crème de la crème of boxing production. From their 24/7 features to their World Championship Boxing, Boxing After Dark, and PPV cards. All are done to the hilt, with a slight few exceptions of course. I mean no one is perfect after all.

All that being said, HBO has done little to expand on the boxing fan base. I’ve heard of possible deals before for boxing to return to broadcast television for years and they have all fallen flat. This seems to me to fly in the face of trying to re-establish your entire sport to a public that has, for the most part, disregarded boxing.

That is why I think this possible pairing of Showtime/CBS and the Manny Pacquiao – Shane Mosley fight is beyond exciting news. The reason it is so exciting to be is because a network station, CBS, is being brought into the fold. The magnitude that this can positively affect boxing is enormous.

If done right. Oh, and if the fight is actually entertaining. People who have no vested interest in boxing need to be engaged. They need to feel like they are emotionally involved in the people involved.

This is where network giant CBS comes in. Per ESPN.com;

According to sources, part of the deal will include CBS promoting the fight by running commercial spots advertising the pay-per-view during prime time programming. Also in the works is a series of preview shows that would run on CBS, or possibly Showtime, which would be similar to HBO’s hit reality series “24/7,” which it uses to stoke interest with weekly episodes during the month leading up to major pay-per-view fights. Pacquiao and Mosley have both had fights featured on “24/7.”

I cannot state enough how huge it would be for CBS to be involved with this fight. The fight itself will have a moderate to large PPV viewership (think 1-1.3 million viewers), but with CBS promoting the fight in the form of advertisements during their primetime programs and, hopefully, a short series in the light of HBO’s 24/7 shows, that could jump the PPV viewership up dramatically (think 1.5-2 million viewers).

This is exciting for longtime fans of boxing, such as myself. If done right, this could be a shot in the arm that semi-dead sport of boxing sorely needs.

Bizarro Boxing


This is where the sport of boxing usually resides.

Boxing can be a real world of strange occurrences and weirdo people.

I have two examples of recent happenings that make you shake your head in amazement. Even though I know boxing shouldn’t amaze me anymore, it does.

Example 1;

On December 21 it was announced that Shane Mosley would be taking on Manny Pacquiao on May 7,
2011.

You heard me right. Bob Arum of Top Rank (Pacquiao’s promoter) decided that the best fight available for Manny Pacquiao was against a man who fought to a draw with Sergio Mora, “‘The Contender’ guy” as Freddie Roach put it.

If this fight was signed before Sugar Shane got utterly dismantled at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. than I would be all for it because at that point I thought Shane really did have something left in the tank. After the Mayweather debacle and his mind-boggling draw with Mora, I don’t think that any longer.

Without getting to in-depth (I’m sure I’ll have a breakdown of this fight sometime before the fight in 2011), I don’t think Mosley has a chance of standing upright past the 7th round. Continue reading “Bizarro Boxing” →