LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. said during the promotion for his welterweight fight Saturday against “Sugar” Shane Mosley he was the greatest of all-time – Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson notwithstanding.
Well, Mayweather had the chance to prove his worth in front of Ali, who was on hand at the MGM Grand.
After coming into the ring to the sounds of “For the Love of Money,” sang live by the song’s originators, The Ojays, the fighter self-nicknamed “Money” lived up to his moniker in grand fashion.
Mayweather was in rare trouble in the second round after taking two hard right crosses, but he survived that to win a wide unanimous decision before a packed house.
Judges Adalaide Byrd and Dave Moretti scored Mayweather the winner 119-109, and Robert Hoyle had it 118-110. This newspaper had Mayweather winning 119-109.
Mosley landed only a handful – that’s being charitable – of somewhat-telling blows after the second round. Meanwhile, Mayweather complemented his defensive wizardry by peppering Mosley with right crosses and left jabs throughout the fight.
But many of these were not light punches. Mayweather snapped Mosley’s head back, he turned it around, and he sent Mosley reeling with those right crosses.
There were no knockdowns.
Mayweather’s only regret was that he didn’t stop Mosley.
“I think we could have pressed the attack earlier and we could have gotten the knockout,” he said. Advertisement
Speaking of Mayweather’s defensive prowess, he didn’t do this by running. He was there for Mosley (46-6) to hit, but Mayweather is absolutely incredible at avoiding punches.
“It’s contact sport and you are going to get hit,” Mayweather said. “You have to suck it up, and that’s what I did when I got hit.”
Mosley got the crowd into it in the second round when he landed a clean right cross to the chin of Mayweather (41-0). Mayweather was not fazed, but he was later when Mosley buckled his knees with an even harder right to the chin.
Mayweather held on, though, gathered his senses and landed a few less-telling blows near the end of the round.
Not a lot happened in the third, but it appeared to be Mayweather’s round with his left-right combination to the head of Mosley during the last minute.
Mayweather had it all his way in the fourth, at one point snapping Mosley’s head back with a strong right cross. Mayweather landed two stinging, lightning-quick jabs in the final seconds, stepping eloquently away from Mosley each time.
By this time, Mosley was starting to appear somewhat bewildered.
Not that Mayweather was landing a bunch of brutal shots in every round, but Mosley was landing hardly anything and Mayweather was landing enough to win rounds. He did that in the fifth as well, landing enough rights to the head.
Again in the sixth, Mosley landed nothing of note, but Mayweather followed a couple of sweet counter jabs by turning Mosley’s head with his hardest right hand to that point. Mayweather landed a left hook to the chin followed by a right later in the round.
Mosley, whose jab was almost nonexistent, was lost.
The seventh round featured two more crunching right hands to the head of Mosley. The first sent him into the ropes. He smiled, then was whacked again 15 seconds later.
Mayweather was on a roll, and Mosley hadn’t landed a terrific punch since the second round.
After Mosley was warned by referee Kenny Bayless for trying to wrestle Mayweather in the eighth, the two were touching gloves and talking and then Mayweather unloaded on Mosley.
Mosley looked to be asking why Mayweather did that, then Mayweather appeared the mouth the words, “I’m going to hit you in the face now.”
A while later, Mayweather did just that with another hard right cross.
Not much happened in the ninth. Mayweather landed a nice right uppercut, Mosley landed a decent left hook that did nothing to Mayweather, then Mayweather came back and landed a beautiful right cross.
Mosley appeared to be a beaten man, and he was on shaky legs in the 10th. He’d eat a jab, then a right. His mouth – which had been open for several rounds – was still open as he was sucking air. He seemed primed to be stopped inside the distance, but Mayweather was content just beating him to the punch at every turn.
Mexican Saul Alvarez stopped Jose Miguel Cotto at 2:51 of the ninth round to win their welterweight semi-main event.
Alvarez improved to 32-0-1, including 24 KOs. Cotto is 31-2-1.
