‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley held a media day in his mountain confines in advance of his May 7th assignment against highly-favored WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Mosley faces off with the Filipino hero inside of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in what can be looked at as the year’s biggest fight thus far.
All in all it made for long day as I departed my Las Vegas bases around 8 in the morning along with Bob Arum, publicist Lee Samuels, Showtime announcer Al Bernstein, and five others. Roughly three and a half hours later and we would come upon Mosley’s personal facility, my first trip to such a location after hearing several stories of Mosley’s training over the years.
<--- Slideshow: Behind the scenes in Big Bear as Shane Mosley prepares for Manny Pacquiao
With Shane were his trainer Naazim Richardson, who fielded questions outside of the ring as Mosley addressed the media in between the ropes, as well as several stable mates, including former champion DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley, welterweight contender Shamone Alvarez, and undefeated Rock Allen. After speaking to the press for almost an hour, everyone would enjoy a quick lunch break before Mosley broke out into his workout regimen.
But his routine left much to be desired.
Despite looking to be in phenomenal shape, which is typically the custom for the 39-year old, Mosley’s only workout actions on this day consisted of dribbling a tennis ball inside of the ring, shadowboxing briefly, and five to ten minutes of mitt-related drills with Richardson. It’s obvious that Mosley wasn’t look to show off today, as he would seemingly be more comfortable doing his real work behind closed doors.
You would have hoped for Mosley to at least hit the mitts or the heavy bag a while and perhaps some some tenacity, as reports from Pacquiao’s camp at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles have the 32-year old looking in rare form. Obviously content with his situation and having been the underdog before, Mosley is playing everything at his pace as May 7th inches closer.
