Shane Mosley will likely receive a title shot after his victory over Cano

By WarMaidana - 05/19/2013 - Comments

mosley200(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Dallas Orysiuk: This weekend was full of many exciting and interesting boxing match-ups: Devon Alexander’s stoppage victory over Lee Purdy, Guillermo Jones stoppage of Denis Lebedev, Lucas Matthysses destruction of Lamont Peterson and finally Sugar Shane Mosley’s “great comeback” victory over the all-time great Pablo Cesar Cano. Mosley (47-8-1, 39 KOs) defeated Cano (26-3-1, 20 KOs) by a close but unanimous decision of 115-113.

In the process Mosley claimed the vacant WBC International welterweight title. Now Golden Boy is likely to put Mosley in line for a title shot.

Both fighters looked terrible, even though Shane looked much better than he had in his past 4 fights. However, fighting Cano is not the same as fighting the top fighters in the world. Shane still had his power, as he hurt Cano on a few occasions with the right hand, but that was all Sugar Shane had going. Mosley still looked tense and rigid during the fight, and at 41, Mosley is just too old to continue to compete at a high level. He is gun shy and his reflexes are shot. Cano was winning the fight in the beginning, however, Mosley responded by coming on strong in the second half of the fight. Surprisingly the fight was not too bad, but it wasn’t more than two tomato cans squaring off in the ring. Even though he won, Mosley does not deserve another big fight.

Golden Boy is now likely to match Shane Mosley with one of their young fighters in a title defense or as  a resume builder. It was like I said, the worst possible thing happened for fans and for Shane Mosley. I predicted if he won we would hear the “Shane Mosley is back and still dangerous” talk and that Golden Boy would match Mosley up with a young fighter who they are trying to build up.

This is not good for fans unless you like to watch one sided beat downs of old men. But this is what we are likely to see, a match-up between Mosley and a younger fighter defending one of their titles. Mosley will receive another payday but at the expense of his health and brain cells. Mosley has a great chin, but he has been getting hit flush lately and the accumulation of punishment will soon begin taking its toll.

Regardless of Mosley’s health and the fans desire to see him hang up the gloves, expect a Broner vs. Mosley showdown in Broner’s first title defense once he dismantles Malignaggi. Or a Khan vs. Mosley match-up in Khan’s first fight at welterweight. Possibly we will see Alexander vs. Mosley for the IBF title, Maidana vs. Mosley or even Garcia vs. Mosley as an attempt to avoid Lucas Matthysse.

Broner is the most likely candidate, as Khan vs. Alexander will probably square off later in 2013, and hopefully Garcia will stay at 140 lbs. to fight Matthysse. At least if Mosley gets in the ring with Broner or Maidana he will likely be beat badly into retirement. Regardless of who the opponent is, I expect that it will be another one sided affair and hopefully it will be the last we see of Sugar Shane.



Comments are closed.