Arum says the crowd booed Pacquiao-Mosley because Mosley wasn’t engaging enough

By Boxing News - 05/08/2011 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Bob Arum, the promoter for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s), was in fine form after Pacquiao’s ridiculously one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) on Saturday night in trying to explain away why the boxing fans loudly booed the fight from the 4th round until the 12th.

Instead of seeing the boos as a product of Arum’s bad match-making of putting Pacquiao in with a fighter that was clearly showing signs of being an over-the-hill fighter in 39-year-old Mosley, Arum put a different spin on it, saying that the fans booed because Mosley wasn’t engaging enough on offense. You think?

Of course, that’s why the fans booed, but what do you expect? If you pick a guy that is struggling and hasn’t won a fight in two years like Mosley, naturally you’re going to get an opponent that will likely not put in a good performance and will look like he’s just trying to survive and not get knocked out. For the boxing fans that paid a lot of money to see the fight at ringside and the ones that paid $55 to see Pacquiao-Mosley on pay-per-view, they weren’t happy to see Mosley not looking to engage. But this is what you get when you choose a guy mainly because of his name value rather than his ability.

Mosley would have been perfect for Pacquiao five or more years ago, but not now. It was academic that Mosley didn’t have the talent to beat Pacquiao after Mosley’s last two fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sergio Mora. Mosley lost badly to Mayweather and then was given a gift 12 round draw with Mora last September. Arum thought that Mosley looked bad because of Mora’s style. However, if you look at that fight, Mosley looked exhausted early on and unable to pull the trigger in the same way that he couldn’t pull the trigger in the Mayweather and Pacquiao fights.

Mosley did little in last night’s fight with Pacquiao, only occasionally throwing shots. He was knocked down hard in the 3rd and that seemed to take all the fight out of him. Mosley would come alive every once in a while, responding to the boos but it was often near the end of the round and often because the crowd was really letting him have it with the boos. I don’t blame Pacquiao for any of this. He merely fought the guy that Arum wanted him to. Pacquiao tried his best against a reluctant fighter.



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