Floyd Mayweather is in for a fight against Socal's Shane Mosley

Floyd Mayweather has a fight on his hands on Saturday night. I know some casual boxing fans look at Shane Mosley and see his five losses and notice that he’s 38 years old, but if you look at the trajectory of his career as well as his recent performances, you have to admit that Sugar Shane is still a very formidable opponent. Now he may not be as formidable as Golden Boy Promotion would have you believe with their made up polls about the fight being a fifty-fifty proposition in the eyes fan around the world when in their very own magazine, The Ring, seventeen out of twenty experts polled picked Mayweather to win, but it’s still a very dangerous and intriguing fight.

The fight should have happened when Mayweather was in the middle of his run as arguably the greatest junior lightweight in history and Shane was the undefeated IBF lightweight champion of the world, but Mosley moved up to welterweight to chase Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather didn’t end up moving to 135 pounds until 2002. Now Mosley started his career with a 38-0 record and in his last fourteen fights he’s had an 8-5 record along with one no-contest. That record isn’t necessarily a critique of Shane Mosley as a fighter.

He first lost to Vernon Forrest in 2002, but Forrest was a huge welterweight and had given problems to Mosley before when he upset him in the 1992 Olympic trials. And the rematch was considerably more competitive, Shane just had a trouble with Vernon’s size and they way he used that size to his advantage. Afterward Shane jump started his career again when he upset Oscar De La Hoya the second time in 2003. Now, most observers, this writer included, thought Oscar won the rematch, but Mosley got the decision and was back on top again.

Unfortunately for Mosley, Winky Wright had established himself as the outright opponent to beat at 154 pounds and Mosley lost his title to Winky in March of 2004. Now Wright was a huge 154 pound who had been fighting at that weight since he was a teenager and even moved up to light heavyweight in the summer of 2007 to fight Bernard Hopkins so that fight isn’t really a cloud over Shane’s career. And the rematch later that year was much more competitive. Thus four of Shane’s five losses are to fighters who had considerable advantages in height and reach and who had generally been avoided by the best fighters in the sport. And even though Shane lost those fights to Forrest and Wright, the rematches were considerably more competitive and Shane has never been chased out of the ring by anybody. And his last loss to Miguel Cotto was a very competitive fight that could have gone either way and that was Cotto at his best before he was ruined by Antonio Margarito.

Since his first loss to Forrest Mosley has had some good wins and has fought an elite caliber of opponent. He stopped the much larger Fernando Vargas twice in 2006 and completely outclasses Luis Callazo in 2007, a fighter that took current WBC champion Andre Berto to hell and back in one of the best fights of 2009. And the win last January against Margarito who was heavily favored speaks for itself so even though at 38 yeoars of age, Mosley probably isn’t in his prime, he’s not too far from it and is still one of the best ten or twelve pound for pound fighters in the world. Plus Sugar Shane is naturally the bigger man with considerably more punching power than Mayweather so I think Floyd is in for a fight on Saturday.

Some experts think Floyd hasn’t fought anybody during the course of the last eight years except for De La Hoya in a bout that was very competitive so they think, specifically the Mayweather haters such as Ringtv.com’s Doug Fischer, that Mosley is going to practically assault Floyd who they feel is going to be in a for a surprise when he’s in there fighting one of boxing’s best fighters who is actually bigger and stronger. Personally I disagree and think Floyd would have beaten Mosley in 1999 if they had fought. I also think the lay-off rejuvenated Mayweather physically and allowed him to grow into a genuine 147 pounder.

Before the layoff, he was more of a junior-welterweight fighting at welterweight, but from the trouble he had at the scales against Marquez as well the obvious increase of his muscular development, Mayweather has become a legitimate welterweight. Mosley is a very very good fighter, but not a great fighter like Floyd, and Mayweather’s speed along with his defensive prowess will allow him to win a decision and set up a fight with Manny Pacquiao that will definitely happen in the fall, especially after the Mayweather-Mosley fight fails to generate 1.5 million pay per view buys. Still that being said, the fighter formerly known as Pretty Boy Floyd has a fight on his hands on Saturday night, and will likely have to survive a few rocky moments on his way to a decision victory. I can’t wait until Saturday.

Author: Brent Alderson

Source: Examiner.com