This is not a preview of the May 7 fight between Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley. That fight is not in question here. We will have plenty of preview-type material in the coming week on that fight, including the audio preview on the debut episode of Bad Left Hook radio on Wednesday, and staff picks on Friday afternoon.
Rather, this is fantasy. We will never see the prime welterweight Shane Mosley fight the prime welterweight Manny Pacquiao. Mosley’s first fight at welterweight came on September 25, 1999, against Wilfredo Rivera. Mosley had some trouble jumping up from lightweight, but knocked out Rivera in the 10th and final round. Eight days previous, a 20-year-old Manny Pacquiao had struggled to make weight and was knocked out in three rounds by Medgoen Singsurat, losing a flyweight title. Pacquiao would soon make his own jump in weight, a three-division leap that sent him to super bantamweight.
By the time Pacquiao became even a guy dipping his foot into the pool to test the welterweight waters, Shane Mosley was 37 years old and being counted out as washed-up, having struggled with Ricardo Mayorga in a junior middleweight fight on HBO. Once again, Mosley struggled greatly before stopping his opponent in the final round — this time at the last second.
Mosley went to welterweight to chase a fight with Oscar de la Hoya. Pacquiao went to welterweight to face Oscar de la Hoya. Both fighters have dreamed big and gone after the top spot in the sport on numerous occasions. They have done things that skeptics said they could not.
On May 7, Manny Pacquiao takes his status as the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighter to the ring to face a 39-year-old Mosley. Once again, Mosley is being told he can’t win, but now time is arguing against him harder than ever. But what about the prime versions of Mosley and Pacquiao as welterweights? Who would have won that fight?
First off we’d have to examine exactly what version of each fighter we’re talking about. For Pacquiao, I think I’d chose the Manny that beat Antonio Margarito in November. That Pacquiao was up against the biggest fighter of his career and thought he got hit and even hurt, he stood up to it and banged away, thrashing Margarito and making hamburger of his face. I know that the fight was not held with a welterweight limit, but Pacquiao weighed in in at 144? pounds on the scales, well below the 147-pound welterweight limit. Either that Pacquiao, or the Pacquiao who fought Miguel Cotto. I don’t think there’s really much difference, I just think the opponents were different.
For Mosley, I’d go with the “Sugar” Shane who fought Oscar de la Hoya on June 17, 2000. Mosley won that by controversial split decision, but proved he belonged at the weight and then some, as he and a prime Oscar traded in a great fight.
For completeness sake, let’s look at what Pacquiao and Mosley have done fighting at welterweight.
Manny Pacquiao as a Welterweight 2008-12-08 | Oscar de la Hoya | W-RTD-8 2009-11-14 | Miguel Cotto | W-TKO-12 2010-03-13 | Joshua Clottey | W-UD-12 2010-11-13 | Antonio Margarito | W-UD-12*
*Was fought at 150-pound limit.
Shane Mosley as a Welterweight 1999-09-25 | Wilfredo Rivera | W-KO-12 2000-01-22 | Willy Wise | W-TKO-3** 2000-06-17 | Oscar de la Hoya | W-SD-12 2000-11-04 | Antonio Diaz | W-TKO-6 2001-03-10 | Shannan Taylor | W-TKO-6 2001-07-21 | Adrian Stone | W-TKO-3 2002-01-26 | Vernon Forrest | L-UD-12 2002-07-20 | Vernon Forrest | L-UD-12 2005-04-23 | David Estrada | W-UD-10** 2005-09-17 | Jose Luis Cruz | W-UD-10** 2007-02-10 | Luis Collazo | W-UD-12 2007-11-10 | Miguel Cotto | L-UD-12 2009-01-24 | Antonio Margarito | W-TKO-9 2010-05-01 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. | L-UD-12
