Mosley Seeks Respect By Exploiting Mayweather's Flaws

For the last few years, Mosley has been trying to secure a mega-fight. When Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired in 2008, and Pacquiao was still competing in the lower weight classes, Mosley had no mega-fight dance partners in the welterweight division. Things got a lot brighter in 2009. Mayweather announced his return to boxing, and Pacquiao became a major player at 147-pounds. Mosley began a heavy media campaign to fight both of them. Neither fight materialized as Pacquiao and Mayweather were more focused on fighting each other.

To keep himself busy, Mosley signed for a unification bout with unbeaten WBC champion Andre Berto. Soon after, a string of unforeseen events would change Mosley's luck in a way that nobody could have ever predicted. The Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations fell apart and both fighters went their separate ways. And then Berto, stricken with grief over his relatives that were affected by the earthquake in Haiti, withdrew from the fight with Mosley.

Golden Boy Promotions, who handle Mosley and have a working relationship with Mayweather, immediately focused their efforts on matching the two fighters. Within a few short weeks, Mosley secured his mega-fight. He defends his WBA title against Mayweather on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mosley told BoxingScene.com that Mayweather has nothing in his arsenal that worries him. Long before the contracts were signed, Mosley studied tapes of Mayweather's style. He reminded me about Oscar De La Hoya's infamous training camp for the Mayweather fight in 2007. Mosley was De La Hoya's sparring partner for the Mayweather fight. He studied tapes to imitate Mayweather's style and body mannerisms for the sparring sessions. Mosley anticipates Mayweather's plan to box his way to a decision. Except Mosley has the same mindset, he plans to outbox Mayweather.

"I'm the veteran in this matchup and he has to watch out for a lot of things that I do. I'm very fast as well. I have good speed now and it showed in the [Antonio] Margarito fight. Speed that people thought I lost. I've had different changes in my life and I'm getting better and better and I'm feeling better and better. I had to imitate him when he was fighting Oscar. I pretty much know his thinking process, what he's going to do. He's a counterpuncher. He's very sharp but a counterpuncher. He only strikes when he knows he's got you beat. I'm not worried about that," Mosley told BoxingScene.com.

"We know his plan, that he wants box. What happens when he gets outboxed? I mean, Zab Judah outboxed him for four rounds, three or four rounds. He's [Mayweather] smaller and has shorter arms. [He has problems dealing with ] speed and southpaws and people going to their right. You put the guys that I fought against the guys that he fought and what happens? I fought guys who were big, coming in at 172. He fought guys who barely reached the 147-pound weight limit and guys who are 5'4 and 5'5, who are a lot shorter. And I'm fighting guys taller and bigger than me in every way and knocking them out."

Mayweather claims that he tried to make a fight with Mosley over a decade ago, and Shane blew him off. Back then Mayweather was competing at super featherweight and Mosley was dominating the lightweight division. Mayweather has repeated this story countless times over the last ten years. Mosley told BoxingScene the story is false. He says Mayweather is distorting the facts. Additionally, he says it was Floyd who walked away ten years ago - and Shane claims there is an old videotaped interview that backs his version of the events.

"He does a lot of lying. These are facts. There is a videotape. In fact somebody at FX told me that they have the videotape of me calling him out at lightweight, before I moved up to welterweight because I couldn't make lightweight no more. He knew that and he said in his words 'I'm not going to go up to lightweight, I'm going to stay at 130 and try to break the record for the most title defenses.' It was 26 defenses or something like that. He said that in his own words back then. What he forgets is that it's caught on tape when he tells that lie. I just need to find the tape," Mosley said.

And let's not forget the trash talking over the last ten years. Both fighters have done their fair share. Despite the years of trading verbal jabs, Mosley doesn't view the fight as something personal. He simply wants to take a statement to the media and the fans. Mosley doesn't think he ever received the proper respect from the critics. He believes his status in the sport was always downplayed.

Mosley's voice began to change when he discussed how the other top welterweights, like Mayweather, were beating opponents from lower weight divisions and the critics were glorifying the wins. At the same time, Mosley was fighting much bigger opponents and receiving far less credit and attention for the victories.

"It won't be the fight of my life but I just want to make a point that I'm the best welterweight fighter right now. There is no welterweight out there who can beat me. I'm not just going to talk about, I want to be about it. I'm going to beat him with speed, speed with speed. Everybody on their mind has Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather and I'm coming right through the back door. And I'm going to step right in an I'm going to make sure that they know that I'm here," Mosley said.

"Mayweather had no choice but to come to me if he wants to make any money. This is not going to be personal for me. This is going to be fun for me. I don't know if it's going to be personal for him. This is like when I fought Oscar the first time. People would ask - 'are you afraid? are you scared? - no, this is what I want. I'm not going to be angry or scared. This is what I want. I'm going to have fun beating Mayweather. It does have a ring of redemption because I get to let the people know, let the fans know, that I'm the best fighter when I've been overlooked and viewed as the second best and third best."

"And it's been like that throughout my whole career, even after I beat the top guys. I beat Oscar and I was still second best and I beat Margarito and I'm still like second or third best. I keep upsetting these people and fighting these guys outside of my weight class. Moving up to 154 and wiling to go to 160 to fight guys bigger than me. Losing to some but still beating guys bigger than me. And then you have these so-called tops guys at 147 go and fight people at 140 and 135 and they get glorified for it. But me going to 154 and trying to fight bigger guys, I get condemned for it."

He plans to exploit Mayweather's entire style. Mosley doesn't think Mayweather is capable of dealing with his style of physical dimensions. De La Hoya's bigger frame gave Mayweather a lot of problems. Mayweather won a twelve round decision but the fight was much closer than anyone anticipated. Mosley believes Mayweather has a lot of trouble with bigger fighters who are aggressive and know how to box.

"He's not going to be the same Mayweather, when you see him potshoting these guys. He wont be able to potshot me like that. I'm actually longer than him, taller than him. He won't be able to potshot me like that. I have longer arms. It's not going to work. I don't think he realizes that. He's had so much success fighting these little guys when he's been able to sit back and potshot them that he doesn't realize that I'm just as fast as him, just as slick as him and can outbox him too. I'm not even going by the power because that's just the icing on the cake. I'm going to beat him at his game," Mosley said.

Author: Rick Reeno

Source: Boxingscene.com