By Dan Ambrose: For the many boxing fans that watched last night’s fight between interim WBA welterweight champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs) and #3 WBA Sugar Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs), it seemed like a pretty clear cut victory for the 27-year-old Avanesyan in their fight at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
However, it doesn’t look like the 44-year-old Mosley was in agreement with the decision given to Avanesyan by the judges. The scores were 114-113, 117-110, and 117-110. Mosley commented after the fight, saying that this outcome that happens when you let the fight go to the scorecards.
It seemed like a pretty clear victory for Avanesyan, as he landed the better shots in every round, and he was pushing the fight and trying to make things happen. Mosley was holding all the time from the third round on, and he looked pretty exhausted in the ring. His age was showing badly in the second half of the contest.
Thank you all for your support. I'm proud of the way I fought. I am the 1st to say when u let it go 2 the judges u risk this mess happening.
— Shane Mosley (@ShaneMosley_) May 29, 2016
Mosley looked like a good fighter last night. For someone his age, he fought well against a guy that probably shouldn’t be ranked as high as he is. Avanesyan looked more like a number 10 contender than a #1 contender or a fighter holding the interim WBA welterweight title. The fact that Mosley wasn’t able to beat a limited guy like Avanesyan, means he would have been in far worse shape if he had fought the real quality fighters in the WBA’s rankings like Shawn Porter and Errol Spence.
Mosley was outworked last night by Avanesyan, leaving the judges no other choice but to give him the victory. Avanesyan was landing the better shots in the round. That’s what it came down to. It wasn’t a mess, as Mosley said it was. He was simply in the ring with a fighter that wasn’t more talented than him, but who was willing to work hard to land the better shots.
Mosley looked like he was only able to fight hard for the first minute of each round instead of the full three minutes. It’s not surprising really that Mosley didn’t have the engine to fight hard for three minutes of each round, because he’s an older guy and that’s what you would expect from an old timer like him.
Each round was the same. Mosley would come out strong after getting a good rest in between rounds. He would then fight hard for the first minute of the round, and then gas out and spend the last two minutes holding or staying on the outside and jabbing. It wasn’t a winning formula for Mosley. It was like he was just stalling out the fight hoping he could win an ugly decision. It was like watching Mosley spar Gennady Golovkin.
If you look at the sparring between Golovkin and Mosley on Youtube, you can see Mosley tying Golovkin up repeatedly after landing a jab or a straight shot. He was using the punch and grab technique that he used in his win over Antonio Margarito in 2009. Golovkin continued to pressure Mosley and work him out. He eventually started to really nail Mosley, especially when he was being held. Last night, Mosley tried the punch and grab technique against Avanesyan and it didn’t work. That tired plan from the Margarito fight no longer works for Mosley against the younger guys that have the engine to keep fighting.
Avanesyan, 27, is just a fighter that picked up the interim WBA title by facing an older guy in Charlie Navarro. Avanesyan didn’t have to beat any of the truly good fighters to pick up the belt, and you have to wonder why the WBA had Avanesyan and an older guy like the 36-year-old Navarro fighting for that belt, as neither of them had done anything recently to suggest that they should have been the ones fighting for the WBA interim welterweight title rather than Spence or Porter.
Having Avanesyan at No.1 and holding the WBA interim belt made as much sense as the WBA having the inexperienced Michele Di Rocco ranked No.1 at 140, and fighting for the vacant WBA light welterweight title against #7 WBA Ricky Burns last Saturday night. It made no sense for Di Rocco to be ranked that high given his lack of credentials in facing world level opposition. It was the same thing with Avanesyan.
Mosley might want to consider retiring from the game because I don’t think there’s anything for him. He says he wants to fight Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Juan Manuel Marquez. I don’t think any of those guys are going to give Mosley the fight he wants. At best, I can see Mosley scraping up fights from time to time against old timers like Ricardo Mayorga, but or some other older fighters. I don’t know how much interest those fights will generate, however,