We are now just hours away from tonight’s Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley WBO welterweight title affair, set to take place within the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There has been a lengthy promotional buildup to the fight and over those months I had the pleasure of interacting with several boxing insiders in an effort to get their take on tonight’s big showdown.
From the always blunt Mayweather family chiming in, fighters like Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah, and Marcos Maidana warning to never count Shane out, and others like RingTV’s Doug Fischer and Pacquiao’s strength coach Alex Ariza disregarding the fight, it has been interesting taking in everyone’s thoughts. No matter who I talked to, I never really came across anyone who was supremely confident of Shane’s chances outside of his trainer Naazim Richardson.
To see what everyone is saying about Pacquiao-Mosley and the surrounding subplots please read below…
?I really like the fight. I think stylistically it is two guys who come to fight. Nobody is going to be doing any lolly gagging in that fight, ya know? I think people really are discrediting Shane a little too much based off what happened in his last few fights. He was shut down by Floyd but Manny Pacquiao is not as good defensively as Floyd Mayweather. I think you are really going to have an explosive fight. Stylistically, I think it?s a really tough fight. I?m not going to tell you Shane Mosley is going to win or going to lose, but it?s two guys who are coming to bang it out. I think it?s a really good fight.? – Former champion Paulie Malignaggi
“I look for Manny to use his speed and his quickness and just use those different angles to create different punches. I think he’s going to wear Mosley down but I don’t think he’s going to stop Mosley. Mosley’s a veteran and he’s still dangerous at forty. I think Manny will win.” – Pacquiao’s sparring partner and undefeated welterweight Shawn Porter
“I aint never seen anything like it in my life. I don’t know if everything is on the up and up. A lot of things are happening man and all I can say is, I think Shane might fall short.”- Floyd Mayweather Sr.
“I give Shane a shot. I feel that he’s a bigger guy and he should go in there and do business. Pacquiao is like myself. He’s a little guy, he’s a force to be reckoned with, left-hander with quick hands, and anything is possible.” – IBF junior welterweight champion Zab Judah
“When you punch as hard as Shane you always have a shot but I think it’s a slim shot. Pacquiao is on top of his game now and he is younger and fresher and has a lot of energy. I think his style will be hard for Shane to keep up with.” – Junior welterweight contender Lamont Peterson
“Obviously some people think he’s enhancing that with, whether it’s steroids or some other designer drug that helps him with it, I personally don’t think so. I think that what’s made him a great fighter at these higher weights is not extra strength, even though he’s powerful; it’s been the way he fights. He knocked out Ricky Hatton with one punch but other than that he’s not knocking people out with one punch. He’s hitting them with hundreds. The reason he’s hitting them with hundreds is that he’s worked very hard to alter who he was. When I weigh in on that debate I think that going up in weight has been achieved through hard work and he’s kind of a freak of nature. He’s able to function at those higher weights.” – Showtime’s Al Bernstein on Pacquiao’s amazing rise in weight
“Shane has got power to beat him to. The only way he aint going to beat him is why most motherfuckers don’t beat him. He’s got that shit in him, that’s why. How does a guy who’s been knocked out twice at 105 pounds beat a guy at 160 pounds? And he’s beating guys at 147 pounds? Please.” – Always outspoken Roger Mayweather
?I think Manny Pacquiao is going to kill him. I don?t know. ?Sugar? Shane is no youngster and he is taking on a guy who is deadly. I mean, realistically, unless Manny Pacquiao is distracted by his job as a congressman, I can?t see him doing anything but going out there and giving ?Sugar? Shane, at his age now, the same beating that he gave to Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey in the last couple of fights. Manny looks like he is really at the top of this game. It?s going to be very, very difficult for Shane Mosley.? – HBO unofficial judge Harold Lederman during our interview in December of last year
“That’s going to be a hell of a fight. I think Pacquiao is going to get it. Mosley is going to try to do his last hurrah. I think that Mosley, he can still bring it out there. He still has the speed and the power, definitely. But I think that Manny has this incredible speed as well as power. And Mosley is a tough fighter but I see it as speed and offensive for Manny Pacquiao all the way through for a unanimous decision.” – Bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire expecting a great battle
?Pacquiao is looking phenomenal right now. Freddie does a great job. We can point our fingers and say what we what, we all have our opinions, but bottom line; Pacquiao is a beast. He is a beast. And I am telling you, and no disrespect, every writer that has written something about Shane, when Shane goes in there and smashes Pacquiao he doesn?t deserve an apology. They deserve to kiss his ass. Because there will be nothing that can be said. And I challenge anybody who has said anything negative about Shane after the Mora fight or the Mayweather fight. If he goes in there and smashes Pacquiao, those were the guys who were talking all this stuff, and don?t let them off the hook, and I will be saying ?I told you so??. – Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson during our interview last year. Naazim is expecting an upset
“It’s an interesting fight. I’m like everyone else, I lean towards Pacquiao, but I feel that Mosley is a very live underdog and I feel that if Mosley can catch my nephew, probably the best defense fighter on the planet right now, he should be able to catch Manny Pacquiao, who has no defense. If he catches Manny like he did Floyd, he has a great chance of pulling off the upset, and there have been a lot of upsets lately.” – Trainer Jeff Mayweather
“He’s not as dangerous as no other fighter, he’s just real strong. Everybody’s seen in Manny’s last fight that he doesn’t waver in the late rounds. He seems to pick up more stamina and pick up the pace of his punches.” – Mosley’s sparring partner DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley
“I’m always excited when I get chosen to do a fight of this magnitude. Again, it lets me know that my work is admired an appreciated. To get this fight is an honor in a way.” – Referee Kenny Bayless on getting chose to officiate the Pacquiao-Mosley fight
“Shane Mosley? I don?t like Shane Mosley. He quit against Mayweather. It?s hard enough to get Manny motivated to train for a fight. Now you?re going to put Mosley in front of us? I could stay at home for that fight. We?d just train for a week. Play some basketball, get Manny back a couple times and boom, go in there and fight. It would be easy.” – Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza criticizing the matchup back in November of last year. Ariza has since changed his tune on the fight, fully realizing how dangerous Mosley could be
“I think it will be a competitive fight. The reason I say that is because Shane Mosley, style-wise, loves fighters like Pacquiao. He doesn’t have to go around the ring and chase anybody. Pacquiao’s quickness might give him trouble but Shane Mosley is a good right-hand puncher and he will be fighting a southpaw who will be there to be hit. I think Mosley will have his moments, like he did against Mayweather. It’s hard to pick Shane in this fight, because Manny is on such a run, but I think it will be a competitive fight. In boxing, every great fighter, even the old ones, have one great fight left in them. Maybe this would be the case with Shane Mosley. We’ll see.” – Showtime analyst Steve Farhood
“Pacquiao. More powerful, he has speed, momentum, and he is just a bad opponent [for Mosley].” – WBC junior middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez
“He’s the best fighter at this moment. He’s the number one now but he has only a short time to be number one. But he has all my respect.” – Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez claims that he will soon steal the pound-for-pound crown from Manny Pacquiao
“He has speed, power, and a lot of angles. No other southpaws are doing what he’s doing. You can’t really mimic a Pacquiao. That style overall just makes him who he is. His style of punching is not the average style. There’s not a particular style that he throws, he’s a power puncher.” – Pacquiao sparring partner Karim Mayfield
“I always stand firm in what I believe. I know Shane real well and I have a lot of respect for Shane. Manny is my boy and I think it’s a good thing for boxing as far as two classy guys fighting each other. I just want to see the best man win. Manny’s at his best right now and Shane’s coming off of two bad performances but sometimes that brings something special out of you. I think boxing needs a good show but all in all I think Manny comes away with it.” – Welterweight hopeful Rashad Holloway
“I think it’s a mismatch at this stage. of their respective careers. Pacquiao is on top of his game and Mosley clearly isn’t. He looked great against Margarito but he didn’t look great against Ricardo Mayorga in his previous fight. And his previous fight before the Mayorga fight he lost to Cotto. I think the Cotto fight was really the last time he looked good against an opponent who wasn’t tailor-made for him. He looked great against Margarito but Margarito had a horrible camp and was very weak from making weight. And stylistically was tailor-made for somebody like Mosley.” – RingTV’s Doug Fischer not feeling the Pacquiao-Mosley matchup
“If Pacquiao can start destroying Mosley in the early rounds, I think he will stop him later. But if Mosley has a decent start, he is capable of lasting the twelve rounds. In either case, I have Pacquiao winning. But, once again, never count a champ like Mosley out.” – Interim WBA junior welterweight champion Marcos Maidana
“It’s a tough fight for four or five rounds. The Mosley everybody knows is pretty good with his boxing ability. He’s got a good defense; he’s got a good movement. For the first four of five rounds it’s going to be a very entertaining fight. People will enjoy it and eventually the speed and the stamina of Pacquiao will prevail. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would stop Mosley by the eighth or ninth round.” – Las Vegas trainer and cut man Miguel Diaz
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
