By Scott Gilfoid: In what has to be seen as a smart move on Shane Mosley’s part, he’s decided to pass on a fight against newly crowned WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (21-0-1, 11 KOs), according to Sky Sports. Apparently, Smith wanted a rematch clause in the contract and the 44-year-old Mosley (48-9-1, 40 KOs) wasn’t interested in getting locked into a long term thing with Smith where he’d have devote another long training camp to get ready for a second fight.

Mosley wants to fight some big names in his comeback. Fighting Smith again isn’t what he wants to do. You can understand it from Mosley’s point of a view. He’s old at 44, and he doesn’t have time to spend fighting some obscure fighter that a lot of boxing fans see as a paper champion. Smith is the 4th world champion at 154.

The others are Floyd Mayweather Jr, Jermall Charlo, and Erislandy Lara. It’s hard to see Liam Smith being in the same class as Mayweather, Charlo and Lara. In other words, Mosley won’t get much credit for beating Smith and taking his title, because he’s not seen as the best fighter at junior middleweight or even the second or third best.

Smith is arguably the bottom champion, and he’s not well-known in the United States. Heck, I wonder if Smith is even well-known in the UK? It’s not as if his name gets mentioned as often as guys like Amir Khan, Kell Brook and Carl Froch.

If Smith drops the idea of wanting an immediate rematch, then there’s always the possibility that Mosley could change his mind. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Mosley decides it’s not even worth it to take the fight because it would consume 3 to 4 months of his career, and he doesn’t have much time to be wasting on fighting guys that are unknown to the casual boxing fans in the U.S like Smith.

The World Boxing Association was kind enough to give Mosley a top seven ranking based off his fluff 6th round knockout win over 42-year Ricardo Mayorga last August, and Mosley is now in position to get bigger fights against the likes of Ruslan Provodnikov and WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman.

I can’t say I agree with Mosley being ranked at No.7 by the WBA, because I think Errol Spence, who the WBA moved downward to No.12, would give Mosley a beating if a fight between them ever happened. I see Mosley’s ranking by the WBA as one based on popularity and things that he did in the past rather than the fighter he is today.