By Gerardo Granados: Former three division champion Shane Mosley was a terrific boxer, talented and skilled but Kronos has done his job. The current WBC light middleweight champion Saul Alvarez is a young lion, hungry for fame and glory but he is over protected and spoon-fed.
Beside casual boxing fans as a friend of mine who thinks Shane is still in his prime and believes that Mosley is a real threat to Canelo. Only Mosley fans must still believe that He deserves a chance to dispute a world title. A year ago, in his last fight he lost to Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao in the poorest performance of his long boxing career. My friend strongly believes inactivity wont hurt Mosley’s reflexes or timing (what?).
A neighbor of mine thinks Mosley is too experienced for Alvarez, but he also believes Shane is in his early thirties. He was astonished when he heard Shane is already 40 and has 19 years as a pro; He said it cannot be possible because he had never heard of him before. He was not aware Shane beat Oscar De la Hoya twice, uh! The main reason might be that he was only 11 years old when Sugar faced the Golden Boy.
Age is a total mismatch; After 21 title fights, Shane has very little gas left if not an empty tank already. Sure he has faced better opposition and is way more experienced than Canelo, but he is also too old now. Mosley is an old lion who has not win convincingly in the last two years.
Same height and reach but Alvarez might be bigger. If Pacman floored Sugar, what can Alvarez do if he is able to connect him solidly? In his last bout at the 154 pounds limit, Shane draw against Sergio Mora in a fight that “The Latin Snake” should have won.
Promoters will sell the fight as the biggest challenge for Alvarez already, they will say that Shane is not finished and will remark his vast experience. But the sad truth is that they wont be lying, because Alvarez has not engaged against top opposition in his short boxing career and the past prime Mosley might be his biggest challenge yet. Another argument to sale the fight could be that Jose Miguel Cotto wobbled a 19-year-old Alvarez, so Shane must have a good chance to do the same.
Mosley’s legs might not carry him for the full twelve rounds in a high tempo fight. Alvarez is a natural light middle. Meanwhile, Shane is a lightweight who has been successful at welter and light middleweight.
Alvarez defense is not that bad, he is a good counter puncher, has great power and has the mobility and speed to dominate and old Mosley. If Shane was 28 years old he would still be able to control the inexperienced Canelo but for some casual boxing fans he could still be able to do so.
Meanwhile, Alvarez´s countryman veteran old lion king Erik Morales will engage against a young hungry lion, prime high ranked Danny Garcia, the young belt holder will be spoon fed once more time.
For how long will this continue? Maybe forever. Can Mosley pull the upset of the year? It was sad for me to watch Sugar Ray Leonard lost to Terry Norris, was it for you? Pro Boxing is a business as we all already know but there should be a limit to avoid such mismatch fights.
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