How many times have we heard the saying, ?Boxing is the truest sport?? Boxing can tell a lot of truth about a man than any other sport in the world. This is one reason why boxing fans like you and I so captivated with the careers of so many boxing legends like Ali, Frazier, Robinson, Basilio, Leonard, Duran, and the others. The sport not only shows two men trying to destroy each other in hand-to-hand combat, but each of those blows tells their own story.
So let?s look into those stories shall we?
The most talked about boxing even that happened recently was the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Sugar Shane Mosley fight.
Again, Floyd Mayweather Jr. came victorious, with 41wins and no loss. Yes he is a braggart who talks trash, very annoying and somebody whom you love to hate. But then again, that is what sells PPV and place butts in the seats.
But no matter what you say about Floyd Mayweather Jr., his recent fight against Sugar Shane Mosley showed us that he is one magnificent boxer. His ability to adjust to his opponents? style and find ways to win is simply superb. We also witnessed that Floyd Mayweather Jr. can get hit with a solid punch and can recover to dominate his opponents.
Again we saw Floyd Mayweather Jr.?s absolutely excellent defensive techniques and his pin-point accurate counter-punching skills with excellent timing. This Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not only a fighter who wins on points riding his bicycle backpedalling, but also he had shown his abilities to mount offensive attack when he gets the chance to do so. He can press, move forwards or backwards and still manage to win the fight. Simply put, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is ?The Money? during that fight against Sugar Shane Mosley.
On the other hand, Sugar Shane Mosley was not so sweet in that fight.
A lot of critics and writers has hailed Sugar Shane Mosley for his knock-out win against, then feared Antonio ?Hands of Plaster? Margarito. And why not? Sugar Shane Mosley put on an exhilarating performance that night. People who followed boxing know that whenever Shane Mosley steps into that ring, he is not there to dance and counter-punch, but he is there to fight.
And because of that win against Margarito he has won the WBA welterweight championship, which placed him in a position to call out his next opponent and amongst them he got Floyd Mayweather Jr. Interesting enough, Floyd’s refusal to pay the WBA sanctioning fees turned this bout a little sour, a “non-title fight”.
But let?s look back at the Margarito fight. Truth is Antonio Margarito was not 100% psychologically fit entering into that fight against Mosley. Because that was the time when Coach Nazeem Richardson caught those Plaster of Paris inside Margarito?s hand wraps few minutes before he steps in the ring with Shane Mosley! Of course, as a fighter, that event would be very damaging to the boxer?s psyche. I?m sure Margarito is fully aware, that being caught with illegal hardened substances inside his wraps could mean the end of his boxing career! Think Louie Resto. True indeed, Antonio Margarito seemed he was never in that fight against Sugar Shane Mosley. You cannot afford to have your mind elsewhere while in the same ring against Shane Mosley, or else he?ll knock you out! And that?s exactly what happened that night.
More than a year had passed after the Margarito fight when Shane finally got the chance to fight for big money against Floyd Mayweather Jr. after Andre Berto pulled out of their proposed bout due to the tragedy that happened in Berto?s home-country Haiti.
The Mayweather fight proves to show that Sugar Shane Mosley still has power to knock his opponents down when he rocked Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the second round of their fight with a looping right hand to the temple.
But other than that, we witnessed a Sugar Shane Mosley who was very much different from the old Shane Mosley who beaten Oscar Dela Hoya. At that point, Sugar Shane Mosley is already advanced in his age of 38years old. In boxing that?s pretty old to be sharing the ring with the elite fighters of the world. For we may be able to train, keep fit, move fast and strong, but our reflexes diminish slowly but surely as we grow older. A fraction of a second reflex can spell the difference between evading a punch and suffering a traumatic comatose.
In this fight, I?ve never seen Sugar Shane Mosley gets tagged by so much jab and counter lead right hands from Floyd Mayweather Jr. This only means that Shane Mosley can no longer react as fast as he used to when he sees a punch coming at him. We also saw a Shane Mosley who was panting with mouth wide open on the 4th round, grasping for air. This was very unlikely of Sugar Shane Mosley of the old. By the 5th round, Shane Mosley was the picture of exhaustion and frustration. He knows what to do, but at that point, his body just couldn?t execute what his mind wants to do. He couldn?t fire the same artilleries he used to fire when he was younger and faster. By the 6th round, Sugar Shane Mosley?s legs were wobbly due to fatigue. Without a firm base in the fighters? legs, his punches would be absolutely shit. Remember, the power of the punches doesn?t come from the arms, but they come from the legs. Shane Mosley was throwing punches that probably just tickled Floyd Mayweather Jr! Floyd Mayweather Jr. did not see any threat if ever he moved forward and push the attack, because at that point, Sugar Shane Mosley was basically an empty shell ready for the taking. Then again, an old warrior as he is, Sugar Shane Mosley held on to hear the final bell. A warrior in his advanced age, plus all the wear and tear of his past ring-wars, plus ring-rust of being inactive for one year, plus pitted against one of the best technical boxer in the world, equals losing via unanimous decision.
At this point, Sugar Shane Mosley must contemplate about his future in boxing, because clearly he is no longer the same Sugar Shane Mosley. This fight showed us that he can no longer pull the trigger when pitted against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Imagine if the man across the ring against Mosley was Manny Pacquiao?!
Which bring us to exclaiming ?C?MON! GIVE US MANNY PACQUIAO VERSUS FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR. ALREADY!?
Could you just imagine if Muhammad Ali never fought Joe Frazier? Or Sugar Ray Leonard never fought Roberto Duran? Or Sugar Ray Robinson never fought Carmen Basilio? That?s the same magnitude tragedy if Floyd Mayweather Jr. never fights Manny Pacquiao.
Cut the B.S. and sign the contract already!
