Throughout the lead up to last Saturday night’s Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout, there was a character previously unbeknownst to the sport of boxing who made for an interesting twist in the promotion. I first remember seeing Bella Gonzalez live and in person in early February for the initial press conference in Las Vegas and soon found out that the model was not only part of Mosley’s camp but also Shane’s girlfriend.
Bella definitely turned heads in Las Vegas and in the following weeks she could be spotted alongside Mosley as he traveled the nation in an attempt to drum up interest in the fight. Gonzalez would also be featured in the third episode of Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 series during a photo shoot while enjoying some final time with Shane before parting ways prior to his fight.
Unfortunately for Mosley, it looks at though Bella, who caught a lot of air time during Showtime’s pay-per-view telecast, is one of his only shining moments after delivering a performance that was both uninspiring and listless over the weekend. Mosley was dropped hard in the third by Pacquiao and subsequently went into retreat mode for the rest of the fight, eventually losing a lopsided decision.
At 39 years of age, without a victory in his past three fights, and showing a deterioration in his skills, everyone is asking for Mosley to call it a day. Without question he is a hall of fame lock but with each passing fight his legacy seems to take a bit of a hit. The demand for Shane to fight again just isn’t there anymore despite all of the memories he has given us.
Mosley reportedly cashed a check of over $5 million for his efforts on Saturday and with it he has a 21-year old girlfriend that many guys would kill for. While his loss to Pacquiao must have been tough to swallow, logic says that he should be able to keep himself preoccupied in the coming months enough to ease the pain of the loss.
Maybe life isn’t so rough for Mr. Mosley after all.
