?Sugar? isn?t sweet and the ?Snake? didn?t bite as Mosley and Mora stank out the Staples Center
After an emphatic pro-Mexican Staples Center crowd was treated to seven knockouts out of ten of the nights fights, with four in a row leading to the nights main event, Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora silenced the crowd of over 10,000 with a lackluster performance from both fighters.
Mosley’s comment about the fight should have people who saw the fight live; and those poor souls who actually paid over fifty dollars for the pay per view, scratching their heads.
“We both fought hard,” Mosley said. “It was good fight, a good decision.”
A slow start from both fighters, who aren’t known for quick starts as it is in their careers, set the tone for the whole fight, as the fight was a ?land a punch, then clinch’ fest that rarely had any moments of true exchanges and was a hard to watch fight in the middle rounds, then ended up with a draw after one judge saw the fight in Mosley’s favor at 112-106, one judge for Mora 115-113, and the third judge seeing a 114-114 even fight.
Mora seemed to fight without a solid game plan, as we was content to fight on the outside, yet not let his hands go for any length of time and left Mosley mostly chasing him around for thirty six minutes.
Afterwards, Mora claimed his inactivity due to respect for Mosley and a belief that he was ahead. Another head scratching moment came when Mora said he didn’t want to injure Mosley.
“I should’ve listened to my corner,” he said. “They were telling me that it was a close fight. I thought I was winning, so I didn’t fight as hard because I have respect for Shane. I didn’t want to hurt him.”
Mosley was hoping to look impressive so as to land another mega bout against another top welterweight in Manny Pacquiao, a rematch with Floyd Mayweather or Miguel Cotto.
Instead, Mosley delivered a frustrating draw, in which Mosley was willing to trade whenever Mora showed willing, yet Mora played defensive most of the night and both fighters recorded their first career draws as professionals.
The night’s entertainment existed in the preliminary bouts, which delivered highlight knockouts from “Vicious” Victor Harris, Kaliesha West and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. On Mexico’s Bicentennial celebration, the enthusiastic building chanted “Ortiz” and “Canelo” for both of Golden Boy Promotions up and coming stars.
In the semi-main event, Alvarez scored a highlight knockout and may have ended the career of veteran Carlos Baldomir, sending the Argentine native face first to the canvas and improving his undefeated record to 34-0-1 with 26 kayos.
Daniel Ponce De Leon became the No. 1 WBO featherweight contender after knocking out Antonio Escalante with one single punch inside three rounds.
There was only one “Vicious” left standing as two fighters with the same moniker faced off in Victor Ortiz and Vivian Harris.
Ortiz was the hometown favorite and delivered to a delighted crowd, sending Harris to the canvas three times in the 2nd round and finishing Harris in the next stanza for his twenty-second career knockout.
New WBO bantamweight titlist Kaliesha West TKO’d her opponent in seven rounds, outworking her opponent, Angel Gladney and winning her first career major sanctioning body belt.
