Underdog Boxing: Making a case for Shane Mosley
The selection for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight came down to Juan Manuel Marquez, Andre Berto, and Shane Mosley. Most Filipino boxing fans wanted Pacquiao to fight Marquez to complete the trilogy. Pacquiao and Marquez fought on two painfully close fights and the fans yearned for one more. There were a few fans, including yours truly, that backed up Berto. He is an undefeated fighter who was at the prime of his career. Pacquiao has never fought anyone as athletic as Berto and a win over him, for us, would have given Pacquiao’s legacy an extra boost. Nobody wanted Pacquiao to face Mosley, except maybe Bob Arum. Mosley is a fighter on the wrong side of 35 and has fought poorly in his past two fights. He lost to Floyd Mayweather by unanimous decision back in May but he did stun the undefeated fighter in the second round. After that, he fought poorly and luckily got a draw against Sergio Mora, the winner of The Contender. We can all agree that Mosley was selected because of his drawing power. He has a good track record in selling fights and he is also a household name in the States. Arum wanted Pacquiao to face Mosley because it will make the most money. I have my own reasons why I was for Berto but I can’t deny the fact that even at this advanced age, Mosley can be a dangerous opponent for Pacquiao. In boxing, power is the last attribute that older fighters lose. They will lose some foot speed and some hand speed when they start to grow older but the power will remain. This is why George Foreman was still successful even if he was fighting in his later years. Mosley has legitimate one punch knockout power. He still has pop in those punches and he can send Pacquiao down if he connects cleanly. People who think Margarito was more dangerous than Mosley are wrong. Yes, Margarito was physically more imposing. He was taller and longer than both Mosley but he really doesn’t use these attributes correctly. Margarito crouches down a lot, eliminating his height advantage, and throws looping punches, which cancels out his reach advantage. Mosley is arguably as strong as Margarito but against Pacquiao it does not matter how strong you are. What matters is if you land your punches and the key to doing that is pin-point accuracy and speed; two attributes that Mosley has in abundance. If there’s a knock on Mosley, it is that he can’t be effective in all 12 rounds. His legs are too old to hang out with someone like Pacquiao who has unreal stamina. However, this doesn’t mean that Mosley isn’t a dangerous opponent. He is a smart fighter with a wise trainer in Naazim Richardson. Manny Pacquiao is not taking Shane Mosley lightly. By all accounts, Pacquiao has been training harder for this fight compared to the one against Margarito. Pacquiao is preparing for a tough fight, we all should too. -- OMG, GMA News