On Saturday night in front of a star-studded crowd of enthusiastic fans, Mayweather defeated Mosley by unanimous decision.
The official scores were 119-109, 119-109, and 118-110.
Rnd. 1 was fairly uneventful as Mosley slightly outscored Mayweather.
In Round 2, a couple of hard right hands hurt Mayweather. The second one actually caused his knees to buckle and he clinched Mosley to allow himself time to recover.
In the post-fight interview, Larry Merchant said: “He appeared to, if not hurt you, stun you a bit in the second round. Were you?”
Mayweather didn’t deny the fact.
“Well, that comes with the territory of boxing, you know? Only the strong survive. I mean, of course this is a contact sport. I mean, sometimes you’re gonna get his with big shots. You must suck it up and keep fighting hard like a warrior.” Mayweather said.
Mayweather did just that. For the much of the remainder of the fight he was uncharacteristically aggressive. He didn’t run, and he seemed eager to fight toe-to-toe. In fact, he began to come forward and pressure Mosley, who seemed stiff and overly-reluctant to let his hands go.
When asked about his aggressiveness, Mayweather replied:
“I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see. They wanted to see a toe-to-toe battle. Fans didn’t want to see me moving. Fans wanted to see me coming forward, so that’s what we did tonight.”
The man that much of the boxing world loves to hate, was not especially hatable on Saturday night. Everything from the way he fought to the post-fight interview was different from what boxing fans have come to expect.
Mosley appeared to have run out of gas by the end of Rnd. 2.
Mayweather’s performance was brilliant, overall. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“You know, I think after I caught him with that big right hand, I might have started loading up a little bit too much. I played into his hands,” Mosley said. “I tried to box around, and move around and get the knockout for me, but I was just too tight. I started getting tight and I couldn’t throw none of my big shots.”
Mayweather’s performance was highly impressive. He landed powerful shots that appeared to have stunned Mosley countless times throughout the fight.
The fight was so one-sided that there will be no interest in a rematch.
The interest is in a match-up between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
Former competitive Taekwondo practitioner, Nino Galibao, of Springdale said:
“Manny Pacquiao can beat him. I want to see that fight. Manny won’t slow down or get tired like Mosley did.”
This match would certainly be an exciting one. Moslt likely, Pacquiao would be able to apply heavy pressure for the entire fight. If Mayweather were to be as aggressive as he was against Mosley, A Pacquiao / Mayweather fight would definitely live up to all the hype.
After the official scores were announced, Larry Merchant asked Mayweather about the possibility of a fight with Pacquiao.
“It’s Pacquiao’s position that he will do whatever the commission says. The commission has indicated that they might be flexible in maybe changing some of their rules, but not necessarily all the way that you want. Does that mean essentially that you’re going to be at loggerheads and that the fight can’t be made?” Merchant asked.
Mayweather: “If Manny Pacquiao takes the blood and urine tests, we can make the fight happen for all the fans.”
Merchant: “And if he doesn’t?”
Mayweather: “We don’t got no fight.”
Mayweather maintained a respectful attitude and refrained from any trash-talking for the duration of the interview.
The former negotiations fell apart because Pacquiao agreed to blood testing up to 24 days prior to the fight while Mayweather insisted on testing up to 14 days.
Boxing fans the world over will be hoping that the two men can come to an acceptable agreement on the blood testing issue.
Mayweather and Pacquiao are the two most gifted boxers in the sport, and this is still the fight the world wants to see.
