By Jim Dower: Using his faster hands and short, hard punches, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) pulled off a tremendous upset tonight, stopping WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) in the 9th round at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. Mosley, 37, knocked Margarito down at the end of the 8th round with three right hands to the head. A badly hurt Margarito somehow made it to the feet and was saved by the bell. In the 9th round, Mosley finished Margarito off with a series of hard shots to the head as Margarito tried to cover up on the ropes. Margarito took a big right hand to the head and sunk to the canvas, at which point the referee stepped in and halted the fight.
Margarito was never in the fight, looking not as well trained as he was against Miguel Cotto in his last fight in July. At the same time, Mosley clinched often, and didn’t allow Margarito to set up his offense. The referee wasn’t penalizing Mosley for his clinching, which pretty much neutralized Margarito’s offense.
Mosley jabbed frequently in the opening round, circling to his right and using movement to prevent Margarito from setting up his offense in front of him. Margarito tends to well when his opponent is directly in front of him. Mosley didn’t allow him to do this in the opening round, and stayed moving and jabbing. When Margarito came in close, Mosley hit him with fast combinations and immediately clinched.
In the 2nd round, Mosley continued clinching when Margarito would come in close. In the meantime, Mosley was giving him huge problems with his fast combinations to the head. Margarito seemed ill-prepared for Mosley’s fast hand speed and was constantly beaten to the punch in the round.
In rounds three and four, Mosley jabbed Margarito from the outside and nailing him with hard right hands whenever Margarito would try to get in close to setup his offense. That was a big problem for Margarito, because although he was the taller fighter at 5’11” compared to the 5’9″ Mosley, Margarito likes to fight in close range and work the body and head with hooks and uppercuts. However, Mosley didn’t allow him to do that, hitting him with hard combinations every time he would try to get in close to land.
In the 5th and 6th rounds, Mosley used combinations to the head to dominate the action. Margarito seemed to have no defense for Mosley’s right hands. Mosley continued to clinch often, which had to have been frustrating for Margarito because he was unable to do much because of it.
In the 7th round, Margarito started connecting with big right hands and backing Mosley up. However, Mosley shut him down with consecutive clinches late in the round, causing the crowd to boo loudly. Margarito, however, finished strong landing a combination before the bell.
Margarito fount well in the opening stages of the 8th round, and seemed to stun Mosley with a big right hand. However, Mosley immediately fired back and hurt Margarito with a big left hand to the head. Margarito then retreated to the ropes and began to get really hammered by Mosley and was dropped by a right hand near the end of the round. Luckily for Margarito, the round ended shortly after he got to his feet, but he was badly hurt and it was clear he couldn’t go on for long. In between rounds, Margarito’s corner discussed stopping the fight but Margarito was having none of it and insisted on going out of the 9th.
In the 9th round, Mosley jumped all over Margarito, nailing him with big right hands and left crosses and Margarito tried to cover up helplessly against the ropes. Mosley quickly snowed him under with big shots, sending him to the canvas for the second time just as the referee was stepping in to halt the fight.
In the end, the clinching seemed to have a big effect on the fight. There needed to be a warning given to Mosley, as well as points taken away from him for this. It’s unclear whether that alone would have been enough for Margarito to win, because he just looked like he wasn’t sufficiently trained for this fight and not prepared for the speed, clinching and movement from Mosley.
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