Several respectable boxing folks reaction to the announcement of next Saturday?s welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley was less than enthusiastic at best and outright disgust at worst. The logic being that Mosley is past his prime and a ripe Pacquiao will pick him apart.
However, while Pacquiao fighting Mosley wouldn?t be my first choice for the pound for pound kingpin, I?m not really at all turned off by the fight. In fact, I view it as more competitive and intriguing bout than Pacquiao?s two most recent fights (which were not competitive at all and frankly were against opponents that didn?t deserve to be there).
History shows us not to discount Mosley. I made that mistake once before.
While interviewing Mosley prior to his January 2009 welterweight title triumph over Antonio Margarito, a fight that he was a 4-1 underdog going into, I openly scoffed at the notion when Mosley told me he could knockout the iron chinned and incredibly durable Margarito. I was proven wrong when Mosley dominated and KO?d Margarito in the 9th round.
My logic going into that fight with Margarito was that Mosley was coming off two unimpressive performances and age had gotten the better of him. In his previous bout, he KO?d Ricardo Mayorga with just one second to spare. Had the fight gone to the cards, Mosley would have officially won a split decision. Not a good thing when Mayorga (aside from two consecutive wins earlier this decade against Vernon Forrest) has made a career off being a punching bag to elite fighters with enough resistance to last a little while.
Prior to that, Mosley had lost a unanimous decision to Miguel Cotto. In that fight I saw something in Mosley that I?d never seen before: he was getting pushed around the ring by Cotto in the latter rounds of the fight.
These back to back uninspiring performances led me to believe he was being led to the slaughter house against Margarito and I was wrong (so was pretty much everyone else).
Flash forward to 2011 and Mosley followed up his 2009 Margarito win with two unimpressive performances. In his next bout against Floyd Mayweather last year, Mosley had some good moments early including staggering Mayweather in the 2nd round. However, ultimately he was routed by the slicker Mayweather.
Most recently, he fought to a draw against former junior middleweight titleholder Sergio Mora last September. It was an excruciating fight to watch given the fact that Mora almost refused to engage (he only landed 66 power punches the entire fight according to Compubox and rarely jabbed). While the draw doesn?t look good on Mosley?s record, it could be a matter of a bad style matchup leading to an ugly fight and the feeling of ?I never want to see that again.?
But as the saying goes, ?styles make fights.? And Styles are the reason why I?m giving Mosley a chance against Pacquaio.
Now, don?t confuse what I?m saying here: I?m not outright saying Mosley will win; just that he has a better chance than many people are giving him.
Mosley can still punch and even though his speed has declined and he?s not as fast as Pacquiao, he can still hurt you if you stand in front of him. Every now and then Pacquiao has a tendency to stand in front of his opponents and trade. He also at times likes to put his back to the ropes (like he did against Cotto..A tactic that cause his assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez to have a mini nervous breakdown in the corner at one point).
If Pacquiao does that, Mosley can still land a big shot. Then it?ll be up to Pacquiao to react. Mayweather was able to do that by clinching his way to survive the round while he got his bearings back. Will Pacquiao be able to do the same if this happens?
I give Mosley a chance for the first three rounds of this fight. In fact, I think he?ll win at least two of the first three rounds. However, if it goes any longer, it should be all Pacquiao.
I just won?t doubt Mosley going into a big fight again. I?ve learned my lesson.
