By Joe Ramos: On Saturday May 7th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV former Welterweight sensation “Sugar” Shane Mosley 46 Wins (39 knockouts), 6 losses, 1 Draw, 1 NC will attempt to do what has not been done in over 6 years. And that is, figure out how to defeat reining WBO Welterweight Champ and P4P King Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao 52 Wins (38 knockouts), 3 Losses, 2 Draws. Most experts agree that this fight will have the same outcome as every other Pacquiao fight over the past several years.

With Pacquiao simply overwhelming his opponent with his speed and volume punching to earn either a TKO victory or a one sided beat down of another former boxing legend. But Mosley is a different type of fighter from what Pac has been facing. But it goes both ways, cause Shane has never been in the ring with a fighter like Pacquiao. But let’s take a look inside to see who has the real advantage.

Shane Mosley over the years has been a great champion and brings a ton of experience into the ring for this fight, but what kind of realistic chance does he have at this stage of his career against the younger and faster Pacquiao? If you look at Mosley’s record a couple things stand out to me. At first glance when looking over Mosley’s record, it’s pretty impressive. Dela Hoya twice, Winky Wright twice, Vernon Forrest twice, Fernando Vargas twice,Miguel Cotto, Ricardo Mayorga, Antonio Margarito and Floyd Mayweather. But what stands out even more than the names on his record, is the results of the fights. If you take away the Delahoya fights which i believe Shane got a gift decision in the rematch, it’s not so impressive after all. He lost both bouts against Wright and Forrest as well as his fights against Cotto and Mayweather.

So the only formidable names on his hit list is Mayorga, Margarito and Vargas and what do they all have in common with Pacquiao? Absolutely nothing. Those 3 are basically the same type of fighters, big, slow and lack any real boxing skills other than they all had a punchers chance in their respective bouts. Then if you think back to when you watched those fights, Shane didn’t look all that good . Well he did look good in the Margarito fight but there were alot of behind the scene controversy’s heading into the ring. He needed every second of his 12 round bout to finish off Mayorga and Vargas was well past his prime and by the look at his physique in the ring did not train properly for either of their matches. So when you really examine the body of work for Mosley in Big time fights his record is sadly just 6-6. But as anyone who loves the sport knows, styles make fights and Shane’s style could make for a very difficult night for Manny. Shane still has some quickness to his punches and has the power in those shots to finish off his opponents if has them hurt. But does Mosley have the legs anymore to keep up with someone who is as light on his feet as Manny? I don’t believe so.

Pacquiao’s list of victims is even more impressive. Juan Manuel Marquez twice, Erik Morales 3 times, Marco Antonio Barerra twice, Dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Margarito. Now I have read all the articles before and i know that some experts out there don’t give Manny all the credit he deserves for winning those fights due to catch weights and the fact that some of the fighters were past their prime, but is that a fair opinion? Let’s look deeper. the first fight with Marquez (JMM) was a judges error and should have been a split decision for Pac instead of a draw. The first Morales fight was close, with Eric pulling out a majority decision win, but got totally blown out in the 2 following rematches. And since the rematch with Marquez nobody has even came close to dethroning boxing’s cash cow. Manny’s record in those fights is 9-1-1. Which may be a number that Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson might want to keep on his speed dial in case things start to look too familiar in recent Pacquiao fights. I don’t usually like to look at how people look in their training camps cause that can be misleading. But if you watched any of the Fightcamp 360 episodes, Pacquiao looks extremely quick, motivated and his punching power on the mitts is ridiculous for a guy his size. As for Shane he is looking really shop worn and his hand speed which is one of the best tools I thought he had coming into the fight isn’t apparent at all.

With all that said i believe that because styes make fights, Mosley has a real chance of pulling out the upset victory, but everything has to go right for that to happen. But if Manny comes into this fight like he has every other fight over the past several years, we could see the first KO of “Sugar” Shane or in the least spend the last half of the fight wondering if Mayweather is gonna come off his high horse and try to make his name relevant in the sport again.