Word has it that Sugar Shane Mosley is inking the contract to fight Manny Pacquiao for a May 7 date at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. From what I?m hearing, Manny Pacquiao and his team have agreed to terms of the fight but has yet to sign off on the deal.
Is Mosley worthy of landing a fight of this magnitude? Probably not. Especially when you take a look at Mosley?s last 2 fights. Mosley froze in his tracks when he faced Floyd Mayweather last May. And in September against Sergio Mora, Mosley also did not look very good.
In Mosley?s defense, Floyd even though he came forward, Floyd only let his hands go for 20-30 shots a round thus taking away opportunities for Mosley to strike. Floyd?s strength, freshness, and calculated strikes completely exhausted Mosley. Against Mora, Mosley was forced to chase his prey for most of the night so striking opportunities came few and far between.
Against Pacquiao things will be presented on a platter. Pacquiao will stand and trade no matter what his trainer Freddie Roach tells him to do. Roach will relay the message to Pacquiao that he must use his jab to throw Mosley off and then fire shots coming in and out.
Pacquiao however has the kind of fighting spirit that will have him doing exactly the things that Roach does not want him to do.
In my eyes and in many eyes out there, Mosley the speed dynamic combination power puncher no longer fits that description. So what then does this Mosley have to offer? I would say experience and an open ear. For Mosley to stand a real chance against Pacquiao, Mosley?s conditioning will have to be at an all time high. Great conditioning and heart is what allowed Margarito to somewhat survive the Pacquiao storm and Mosley will need the same.
Mosley also has his great body work to lean on for this fight, I recall Pacquiao getting hurt bad against Margarito in the sixth round when he was hit clean to the body. If I?m Mosley, I use that open ear of his to take the advise of his good friend Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins is pretty much the master at fighting southpaws. We know that Mosley?s trainer Naazim Richardson will find a way to sketch out a plan to have Mosley land a thunderous shot. Question is, will Mosley be able to pull the trigger enough?
That indeed is the real question because landing a bomb on Pacquiao does not really get the job done. Pacquiao has shown that he has the heart and will power to fight through the pain. Mosley must unload and reload as much as possible. Marquez to me troubled Pacquiao because Marquez fired a ton of combination shots at Pacquiao and in doing just that you are forcing Pacquiao to reset his footing. Morales was also able to do this for his first fight against Pacquiao. Morales failed in the next two attempts against Pacquiao because Pacquiao was able to add a lethal right hand to his arsenal, and Morales became scared to death of Manny?s new weapon thus forcing Morales to slow down his pace.
To me that was the biggest difference between Morales and Marquez, Marquez was very much aware of Manny?s new found friend, the right hand, but Marquez did not fear it. Morales did fear it so his fight plan went out the window. Marquez on the other hand stuck to his plan and continued to unload and reload by firing shots from every angle imaginable. This is why a big part of me feels that if Floyd and Manny are to ever fight that Manny may gobble up Floyd because Floyd is not busy enough to keep Manny off of him.
Manny Pacquiao is a monster like no other, a fighting machine. Shane Mosley must not only be up for this challenge but Mosley must stay up for it as well. One can not afford to even blink when facing a typhoon that is fast approaching. Do your homework because when the bell rings, you best come out or don?t come out at all.
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