I suppose there could be worse things than watching Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga fumble around for twelve rounds on a hot August evening. The humanitarian in me says that a Mosley-Mayorga rematch is infinitely better than watching either man have his brains scrambled fighting anyone, well, good. The entrepreneur in me says that there’s money to be found in this Jurassic matchmaking…but more on that in a bit.
If Shane Mosley is telling the truth on Twitter, he has signed on to face Nicaragua’s chain-smoking, beer-drinking, trash-talking Bizarro World Alexis Arguello, Ricardo Mayorga on August 29 at a venue to be announced in Los Angeles. The bout would be a rematch of their fairly awful 2008 contest, which Mosley won via twelfth round KO after nearly thirty-six full minutes of frustrating inside grappling framing occasional bursts of awkward, sloppy exchanges. It was a bout utterly devoid of highlights, except for the final fifteen seconds, when Mosley found Mayorga’s sweet spot and laid him out.
Mosley, 43, is 1-4-1 in his last six contests, most recently quitting on his stool in the seventh round in a 2013 bout against Anthony Mundine in Australia.
Mayorga, 41, is 2-0 in 2014 bouts, but against very low-level opposition. His last world class opponent was Miguel Cotto back in 2011, who outboxed him for most of their encounter before closing the show with a brutal knockout in the twelfth and final round.
But, despite the fact that a rematch was not on anyone’s list of “must see” return bouts, a part two for these two former champs kinda-sorta makes sense. How many “name” opponents are there out there for either? Fighting a nobody won’t generate either a payday, but fighting a “real” contender would pretty much be a guaranteed loss. So, why not fight each other and exploit whatever value their names still have? Then, they can move on in search of another 40-something wash-out looking for a decent payday that won’t exasperate whatever brain damage is lurking beneath their cranium
I guess that’s the best you can hope for in the wild world of professional boxing when someone has their mind set on an awful idea– the LEAST dangerous and offensive option.
And that leads me back to my entrepreneurial idea.
Why not create a real “Seniors Circuit” for these fighters hell-bent on fighting well past their primes? There are certainly plenty of boxers out there with name recognition and enough ability intact to be just outside of realistic world class consideration– fighters who are too good to quit, but not quite good enough to compete with the top names anymore. These are fighters who, also, still need a paycheck and could very well be putting themselves at risk of serious injury in pursuit of that paycheck on the open market. Matched against others “of their kind,” though, they could get paid while staying as safe as possible in bouts facing other past-their-prime fighters.
It’s a cynical idea in a world that is routinely much more cynical, but it could work. And if it did, fighters wouldn’t have to go from the Preakness straight to the glue factory anymore.
And, let’s not kid ourselves, the idea could quite possibly catch on with the fans, who often seem to value name recognition over athletic prowess when it comes to deciding which fights to watch. A card headlined by Mosley-Mayorga 2 with co-features of Shannon Briggs vs. Samuel Peter and Nate Campbell vs. Vivian Harris could do surprisingly well, both at the live gate and on TV.
So, why not do it? Crank up the hearing aids and spike the water bottles with Geritol — it’s time for a Seniors Circuit in boxing!
