By Tim Neilson: In a stay busy fight, former lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight champion Shane Mosley (44-5, 37 KOs) will be taking on former welterweight and light middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (29-6, 23 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout on September 27th, at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. Mosley, 36, is hoping to use a victory over the 34 year-old Mayorga as ammunition to get a fight with WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito after that. That seems more wishful thinking at this point for Mosley, who has done little is the past six years, losing six out of his last twelve fights during this stretch of time.

Margarito, if truly desperate, might take on a fighter like Mosley given his still popular name among boxing fans, but he’s clearly not the most marketable fighter out there for Margarito at this time. If Margarito does end up facing Mosley, one would believe it would only come after exhausting all other potential opponents in the welterweight or junior middleweight divisions in which to face. Mosley, at one time - in between 2000 to 2001- was arguably the top fighter in the welterweight division and pound-for-pound the top fighter in boxing.

However, he was beaten a couple of times by Vernon Forrest in 2001 and 2002, and since that time it’s been a downward slide for Mosley. His skills have always been topnotch, but his lack of size in the welterweight and light middleweight divisions, have limited his success against the bigger, equally skilled fighters like Forrest, Winky Wright and Miguel Cotto.
Mayorga, for his part, was briefly the top welterweight in all of boxing in 2003 after twice defeating Forrest, but later on in the same year, Mayorga was defeated by the crafty defensive wizard Cory Spinks. Since that time, Mayorga has fought only five times, has gained weight, looked mediocre and has been beaten by TKO by both Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya in 2004 and 2006.

The loss to Trinidad was excusable, because Mayorga seemed to not give him much respect in the fight, daring him with his hands down, to hit him in the face. Trinidad obliged him, hurting him badly with left hooks en route to an 8th round stoppage. However, the loss to De La Hoya, who appeared shot himself, seemed to suggest that Mayorga didn’t have much left of his once impressive boxing skills. He’s still capable of overwhelming his opponents with his swarming offense, as evidenced by his recent 10-round majority decision win over Fernando Vargas in November 2007.

Mayorga looked decent for the most part, hitting Vargas with punches from all angles in many of the rounds. However, he seemed to tire out as the fight winded down, letting the out of shape Vargas back into the fight, enough to the point where he was able to make the fight close in the later rounds.

At this point, neither Mosley or Mayorga are the same fighter they were earlier in their careers. However, Mosley still can fight well against the smaller welterweights in the division like Cotto, whom he almost beat in their fight in November 2007. If Mosley can last out Mayorga’s early fireworks, then you can expect to see a win for Mosley, most likely by knockout as Mayorga tires out and gets stopped. But if Mayorga can somehow swarm Mosley early in the fight, the same way that Forrest did twice to him, then Mayorga has a better than average chance of stopping the 36 year-old Mosley.

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