SATURDAY May 7 sees Sugar Shane Mosley take part in possibly the biggest challenge of his career when he goes in against boxing?s pound-for-pound leader Manny Pacquiao in a WBO welterweight title challenge.
The ?Pacman? has cut through the weight divisions like a knife through butter and has amazed even his doubters with the ease at which he has handled the bigger men he has come across.
Quality men such as Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito have all been brought to a standstill by a whirlwind of punches from the little man.
Manny has taken his power as well as his speed up through the divisions and many feel that the only man that could test him at welterweight is a certain Floyd Mayweather. But he, for whatever reason, doesn?t seem to be too interested in boxing right now so Manny has been looking elsewhere.
So he?s looked in the direction of Shane Mosley and, as expected, the warrior within Mosley has taken the fight and he now becomes the next marquee name to face Pacquiao.
Mosley has been a great fighter, in my opinion was one of the great lightweight champions before he stepped up through the divisions to win world titles at welterweight and light-middle before dropping back to a more natural 147lb again to reclaim another world title.
Mosley is a man that has beaten big names like De La Hoya, (twice), Fernando Vargas, (twice) and Antonio Margarito.
He also came very, very close to being the man to take away the unbeaten record of Floyd Mayweather. Shocking Pretty Boy with his power and having him in serious trouble early on.
A big problem for me is that Mosley has been his inactivity. His career has stalled badly since arguably his finest performance when he smashed the previously feared and avoided Margarito to bits. Mosley was electric that night, speed, power, accuracy and thunderous body punching. It was all there.
But Mosley was old at 37 that night, and since then he has LOOKED old. After rocking Floyd in the second round, he was gassed and couldn?t pull the trigger for the rest of the fight and ultimately lost in a one-sided decision.
Mosley was back up at light-middle in a stinker against Sergio Mora four months later and looked even older and slower as he struggled to a draw and now another eight months older he will be going into a fight with the quickfire Pacquiao.
If this fight was a few years ago I would have been really excited, even if it came straight after the Margarito fight, I would have given Mosley a good chance, but now he just doesn?t throw enough and the fact that he runs out of energy is worrying going into a fight with the ?Pacman?.
What worries me most is that Mosley has always had a good chin, along with a big heart. The way I see it is that he could be in for a sustained beating in this fight, getting nailed repeatedly by big power shots and rapid combinations as he continues to try to get going. He may have a chance for the first or second rounds, but from then on Manny will be in total control I think.
Mosley being Mosley, will keep trying his heart out to find a way to win, maybe land that one big shot, but even if he lands one that rattles Manny, would he be able to sustain an attack? I don?t think so, unless it?s in the first two rounds.
I can see Mosley being retired by his corner, dejected and broken, much like Oscar looked at the end of his fight with Pacquiao. If Shane loses as I expect, hopefully he?ll decide to call it a day and retire from the sport.
I?ve been a fan for a long time, but I would rather watch the old fights on YouTube than still see him churning out fights to wind down his career.
