Shane Mosley’s last twelve years in particular have been extremely memorable in the sport of boxing. From winning titles from 135 to 154 pounds to producing memorable performances well late into his career, Shane has found a way to constantly reinvent himself and is still very much relevant in the game today.
With proposed talks with Floyd Mayweather Jr. still in discussion, Mosley is again the talk of the town and looking to further add to his hall of fame career. It’s been a memorable ride for the Pomona, California native and one that has seen him recover from devastating losses and the infamous Balco controversy.
One man who has gotten to fully appreciate the reigning WBA Welterweight champion for everything he has been is trainer John David Jackson. A Seattle native now training fighters out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jackson has known Mosley for nearly fifteen years and had a three fight stint training Mosley.
Jackson recently reflected back to the day he met Mosley out in West Hollywood, California during the mid 90’s. While Jackson was unable to recall the exact name of the gym in which he met young Shane he certainly was left with a lasting impression of Mosley’s ambitions as fighter.
“Me and Shane first got together when my management team was interested in signing him and we all ended up talking,” Jackson says reflectively. “What happened was that one day I was at the gym getting ready for a fight and Shane ended up coming through and asked about sparring me and I said ‘Why not?’.”
At the time Mosley had been building a buzz in the California area as a tenacious boxer-puncher with a penchant for ending fights early. He was still a few years away from creating nationwide exposure and Jackson himself recalls being surprised at Mosley’s competitive spirit.
“Shane was a Lightweight back then and he wasn’t even a champion at the time,” Jackson reflects. “After the first two rounds I came back to the corner and told them to tell Shane to slow down a bit. The last two rounds I had to put it on him a bit just to slow him down. Shane is such a competitor that I had to tee off on him a bit just to let him that I was still a champ and that he couldn’t roll over me.”
Jackson remembers instantly clicking with the younger fighter and establishing a level of trust and respect. That mutual bond would end up being vital years down the road when Jackson entered Mosley’s life as a trainer.
“From that day forward Shane and I became pretty close,” Jackson points out. “We’re not extremely close but we’ve always had respect for each other. I give Shane credit for one thing in particular. There was a time when most of the trainers around Shane were trying to block me out and stop me from getting work but Shane went out of his way to hire me as his head trainer. People had been trying to keep me out of the picture for years and Shane went out of his way to stand up for me.”
Jackson believes that the reason he was able to establish a trust with Mosley in the corner was because of his past experience sparring several rounds with the high energy fighter. The camaraderie that is formed between fighters is a special thing and it lead to Mosley reaching out to Jackson later in his career when he was in need of a new voice.
“I trained Shane for three fights,” Jackson says. “The last one being his first fight with Fernando Vargas. We trained out of Big Bear. He has his own facility up there and it’s really nice. We always went up there because that’s Shane’s piece of mind. That’s his own place and he can always do his own thing up there. We would always go there to train and it’s a beautiful place to train.”
Click to read John David Jackson’s thoughts on Manny Pacquiao
While working with Mosley in Big Bear, Jackson saw on a first hand basis just how much desire Mosley still had left in his career. Mosley was coming off of back to back losses to Winky Wright yet still was very much set on showing that he was a world class fighter.
“Shane is a great guy to work with,” Jackson states. “I remember getting up early in the morning to run with Shane and we’d come back and everybody would be relaxed. Around noon we would hit up the gym. Shane is a student of boxing and he’s not hard to work with at all. I knew that Shane knew how to fight and my job was to make him a better fighter and more complete fighter. I’d show him tricks of the trade to make him a better fighter without having to work as hard and those younger fighters.”
With Jackson in his corner Mosley would win all three of his fights, with the first Vargas bout being a rousing affair in which Shane appeared to rediscover his speed and combination punching. On the surface things seemed to be going well but boxing is often a bittersweet game and sometimes things just aren’t meant to last.
“We never got to the point we wanted unfortunately because things happened,” Jackson says matter of factly. “A lot of it had to do with his wife. She didn’t like me training Bernard [Hopkins] and splitting up my time with Shane and that created some sort of conflict. I couldn’t leave Bernard because we had signed a contract.”
Jackson was able to take much away from his time with Mosley and still has a great amount of respect for him as a fighter and a person. No pugilistic is perfect and while Jackson was able to see certain flaws about Shane he will be the last person to let the cat out of the bag.
“I’ve always known his strong points and his weak points,” Jackson believes. “He’s a hell of a fighter but there is one way to beat Shane. I would never let it out but there are certain things that he does that he collapses on. Certain things he does kind of mess him up but it’s not for me to say. I can say that it’s still going to take a special fighter to beat him, even to this day. I just don’t see anyone of these guys today being able to do that. To this day I still feel that he is the top 147 pounder in the division. At 147 I don’t’ think anybody could beat him but him and Floyd would be a very good fight.”
Pairing the Las Vegas based Mayweather’s name with Mosley’s has been a common practice these days, as members of their teams have been reportedly eyeing an early May bout between the two. While the negotiating process was reportedly running smoothly to start, fellow colleague Michael Marley broke the news earlier today that Mayweather may instead opt to sit on the sidelines and eye a more lucrative payday against Manny Pacquiao if the Filipino is victorious against Joshua Clottey on March 13th. Jackson himself weighs in on the situation.
“I know that it would be a disappointment if the fight didn’t happen but I know in his mind and his heart Shane would believe that Floyd didn’t want to fight him. What would he do from that point? He’d have to move on.”
Moving on from a huge money fight with Mayweather is easier said that done. At age 38 Mosley will already be facing well over a year long layoff when he returns the ring and his options outside of Floyd may be more limited than they seem. Jackson admits that it is somewhat of an uphill battle and that Mosley might have to act out of character to get what he really desires.
“The problem is the general public wants to see Floyd fight Pacquiao instead of seeing Shane fight Pacquiao, because he’s more controversial and flamboyant. Shane’s a very good fighter but he’s quiet to the public. Shane will just have to look at other avenues. He doesn’t have too many opportunities at this stage of his career outside of fighting a Floyd or someone like Pacquiao. Maybe Paul Williams but it’s not a multi-million dollar fight. He might have to get loud or nasty a minute and make his case known that he wants to fight the best. Maybe if he did that more people would take notice.”
