Booing at a Manny Pacquiao fight? Booing when two iron-chinned warriors each go down for the first time in several years? Booing when two of the top-five welterweights share a ring? That?s supposed to be the way Philadelphia football fans react to Santa Claus, not the way fight fans respond at a big-ticket bout in Las Vegas.
Yet that?s what happened on Saturday.
Almost no one expected the contest between Pacquiao and Sugar Shane Mosley to be competitive, due primarily to Mosley?s age (39) and his less-than-scintillating performances in his previous two bouts against Sergio Mora and Floyd Mayweather. Still, it was not unreasonable to expect Mosley to put up a better fight than Pacman?s previous two victims, Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey.
Well, Mosley didn?t suffer as severe a drubbing as those two did. But that was mainly because he fought strictly to survive after Pacquiao floored him in the third round. It was the first time Mosley had tasted the canvas since his first fight with Vernon Forrest nine years ago. Pacquiao?s fists turned Shane into a defensive fighter. Normally, Pacquiao feasts on defensive fighters. Hampered by a cramped left leg, however, he had trouble tracking the elusive Mosley down.
Mosley did manage to score a disputed knockdown of Pacquiao in the tenth. It was the first official decking Manny suffered since 2003, when he was dropped in a bout with Serikzhan Yeshmagambetov. Pacquiao rose and stopped his opponent (don?t expect me to spell that name twice) in the fifth round.
Pacquiao had been floored on three previous occasions, including two stoppage losses. But those were all early in his career, when he fought at featherweight and below. He has matured into a much more resilient fighter as he rises in poundage.
Those knockdowns were the only highlights of the Mosley fight. Shane?s reluctance to engage, and Pacquiao?s ineffectiveness in pursuit, were the reasons the boobirds broke into full chorus during and after the fight. It?s not a sound that the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world ever expected to hear.
Last year, Mosley suffered a similar one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. A comparison of Mosley?s performances against Mayweather and Pacquiao is pretty much a wash. On both occasions, Mosley essentially yielded to a younger, faster foe while still going the distance. Pacquiao floored Mosley; Mayweather didn?t. Mosley dropped Pacquiao, and rocked Mayweather without knocking him down. As a measuring stick, the Mosley fights don?t tell us much about what could happen in a Pacquiao-Mayweather encounter.
As 2011 approaches the halfway point, it appears more and more likely that Pacquiao-Mayweather is not going to happen. Maybe they?re being offered too much purse money.
In the aftermath of his conquest of Mosley, Pacquiao?s future is whatever he wants it to be. A third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez is likely. But who wouldn?t want to see him slug it out with a young glove-slinger like Victor Ortiz?
Hopefully, that leg cramp isn?t a sign that time is beginning to take its toll on Pacquiao?s body. If he can maintain his conditioning and focus over the next couple of years, Manny can beat anyone put in front of him at welterweight or junior-middleweight. That includes Mayweather.
As for Mosley, he has shown that even though he is past his peak, he can still defend himself. At this point, he is an elite gatekeeper, with three losses in his last six bouts. One wonders if that?s the way he wants his stellar career to end.
It?s a safe bet that neither of these fighters wants to hear the boobirds again.
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers.
