By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) is 40-years-old now and three years removed from his last victory in 2009. He’s now fighting for the WBC title against unbeaten champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) on May 5th on the Miguel Cotto vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega fight on HBO pay per view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A lot of boxing fans are saying that Mosley, a former pound-for-pound #1, is totally shot and will badly lose to Alvarez. The getting is already going heavily against Mosley winning this fight, and it would seem like he’s going to lose this fight. However, Alvarez is badly inexperienced having been well protected by Golden Boy Promotions these past few years when he arguably should have been already facing better opposition.
Mosley has faced the much better opposition and has a lot of ring knowledge that he can fall back onto for this fight. Mosley, 5’9″, is the same height as Alvarez, although he’s not as heavy-handed as the red-headed Mexican. Where Mosley has had problems in the past couple of years in losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is that he’s failed to throw enough punches to win.
Mosely doesn’t seem to like the idea of getting hit, and goes into a mode where he stops punching and just tries to keep from getting hit. Mosley is able to make it the full 12 rounds, but he’s suffered two wide decision losses because of that. For Mosley to beat Alvarez, he’s going to have to really go after Alvarez and try and at least match his work rate if not better it.
Alvarez isn’t the fastest fighter and he’s easy to hit with a jab. He makes you pay with big shots every now and then but he’s definitely easy to hit if you’re committed to jabbing him.
Mosley needs to start with a good jab and then use it to work on other punches he can land in this fight. Alvarez hasn’t been cut yet, and if he can get him bleeding that could make things a lot easier as self doubt and possibly panic sets into the mind of Alvarez.
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