With little under two weeks to go before veteran Shane Mosley (44-4, 37 KOs) takes on undefeated welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs), there has been a lot of doubters about Cotto’s chances in the bout, mostly due to his advanced age or 35, which will put him a distinct disadvantage against the younger 25-year old Cotto. Though Mosley is a former pound-4-pound fighter, his age and lack of top level competition in recent years will be an issue for him when he steps it up to take on Cotto, who is fighting perhaps the best he ever has in his career. To be sure, Mosley left behind his prime years as long as seven years ago, around the time that he first defeated Oscar Dela Hoya.
That prime window only lasted a short time, however, as he soon after lost twice to Vernon Forrest in 2002, losing two 12-round decisions. Mosley then lost two Winky Wright twice, both fights basically making it clear that Mosley was on the career decline. Since then, he’s had a couple of TKO wins over the badly washed up Fernando Vargas, as well as victory over the offensively limited Luis Collazo. Neither victory was what I would consider anything to shout about, since those fighters aren’t considered to echelon opponents, the type that Mosley should be facing at this stage in his career.
Now, suddenly Mosley has decided, for whatever reason, that he wants to take on Cotto, clearly the best welterweight in the division. Perhaps Mosley saw something in Cotto’s battle with Zab Judah, possibly something that Mosley believes he can take advantage of. However, Judah is a much faster fighter than Mosley at this stage in his career, and it remains doubtful that Mosley can in any way duplicate that effort against the younger Cotto.
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