By Simon Hirst: So ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley rolled back the years and told Father Time he isn’t ready to retire just yet in an emphatic win over Antonio Margarito. Mosley dominated the first in almost every aspect and fully deserved the knockout victory after coming out of the shadow that fought Ricardo Mayorga. It does leave boxing in an interesting position as many people finally rated Margarito as a top pound for pound fighter and Mosley as a fighter waiting to be put out of his misery.
Looking at the form book, Mosley entered with a very good record and perhaps, if most boxing experts and fans, myself included, wrote Mosley off way too early for this. You couldn’t blame us after his performance against Mayorga where he came within a second away from a point’s loss. On the other side off the coin, you had Margarito, coming off two excellent wins against Cintron and Cotto, and wanting to prove he is worth the reputation he had.
Most boxing fans and experts expected a one sided, possible knockout from Margarito, after all, if Mayorga could dominate Mosley, then what on earth would Margarito do to him. Of course, we all forget that each fight is not based on form, it based on styles and tactics and the fact is, no one really considered Mosley’s speed to be too much for Margarito to handle; we all expected Margarito to have come up with a solution to this. Certainly no-one expected Mosley to dominate in power to the point of a knockout. We all know about Margarito’s rock chin, but no one expected an old Shane Mosley to fire past it. Maybe the war with Margarito had with Cotto, who dominated almost nine to ten rounds took more out of him. Maybe Margarito wasn’t very well on the day of the fight. Maybe Margarito didn’t prepare properly. Or maybe he took too long off after his fight with Cotto and was ring rusty. All we do know is that the Margarito people expected wasn’t seen anywhere near Las Angeles.
Again, it smashes the weak theory of triangular theory of if Boxer A beats Boxer B and Boxer C beats Boxer A, then Boxer B has no chance against Boxer C. After all, boxing isn’t maths and this theory has been proved wrong before, most recently between Pavlik Hopkins and Taylor. Maybe people subconsciously thought because cotto beat Mosley and Margarito beat Cotto, then Margarito should beat Mosley. It crossed my mind before and added to the reasons why he should have, but it’s an illogical view that should never count in any sport because sport isn’t mathematical, anyone could beat anyone on any given day. Not saying they would, I’m saying it isn’t impossible.
Another point I would like to make is if you think about it, this is a fight Margarito didn’t really have to have, in the same respect Pavlik didn’t need to have the fight against Hopkins. They could have used the triangular theory above and most people would probably be satisfied with it because it seems to make logically sense expect styles work better against others, but no one would really have thought this far ahead. If you’d have told me Margarito has turned down a chance to face Mosley after the Mosley fight, I’d have said ‘good, it would be a waste of time’ and look how wrong I am. It was a risky fight with little reward for Margarito. I don’t know whether to congratulate him on not ducking it or slate him for being so stupid, it works both ways.
So where does this leave boxing. Well I’m almost certain that most people wasn’t preparing for this. Margarito was thinking about a rematch with Cotto. Well, if that match happens, providing Cotto comes through against Jennings, then it adds more emphasis in a way because Margarito is coming off a loss, Cotto would have just got back on the path, so whoever would lose would be in immense danger of losing their highly regarded status in the welterweight division. It might literally be an all or nothing fight.
Other fights for Margarito could be to look at Andre Berto. Berto is a rising talent coming off a tough, hard fought win against Collazo, which was an arguable win in some people’s mind, but fact is, Berto got the nod so that’s the end of it. Berto, although regarded a champion, is regarded as the weakest in the Welterweights. For Berto, a fight against Margarito would prove how far he can go to being the best, a fight against Berto for Margarito would prove whether he’s still got it. If this did happen, I would fancy Berto as the blueprint to beating Margarito is there for everyone to see now and I think he’d base his game plan on it, but who knows!
Margarito may look at Clottey, a man he’s beaten before and another champion. This would be a good fight, again for Margarito to see if he can recover and rise to the top once again. Clottey, of course, may fancy his chances after watching the Mosley fight and with the thought of revenge, may take the fight. A win, albeit it against a damaged Margarito, would lift his own reputation.
For Mosley, he has already said he wants super fights as opposed to hard tough fights with champions. He wants fights that capture the imagination, with big names with big reputations and more important, with more money. I think around the welterweight division, possibly looking up to the light middleweight division and not a lot of names stick out, but some do.
The first thought would be the winner of the Hatton/Pacquaio fight. I think Mosley would rather take on Ricky Hatton, purely because of how big Hatton’s fan base is in both America and the U.K but, to me, this is such a tough fight to call. It will come down to how good Ricky is at cutting off the ring and getting at Pacquaio given Pacquiao’s speed. A fight between Mosley and Pacquaio doesn’t whet the appetite as much as Hatton and Mosley because I think Hatton would stand and trade more rather than Pacquaio who would be in and out before Mosley could punch. That’s not a critisism of Pacquiao, he does what he has to do, but I think Hatton would make it more entertaining without having to change his style much.
Another big fight could be Cotto-Mosley. Cotto is one up on Mosley and Mosley may fancy his chances coming off such a lop-sided win. I think whether this fight happens depends on how well Cotto does in his next fight, presuming he wins it of course. I will go on record and say I expect Cotto to win emphatically, purely because Jennings isn’t even considered in the UK’s top ten fighters, much like Lockett. An emphatic win for Cotto would be like a statement to say ‘I’m back to my best’. I think this will be exactly like his fight with Gomez, although I think he could win this earlier but will want the rounds. We’ll see, but this is another fight that Mosley could take.
Looking up a division, the only fighter who looks like he could do something against Mosley is Paul Williams, a fighter Margartio wanted and as a result of his loss, will surely not fight now. Williams is regarded as the best Welterweight in the division and has recently decided to step up to light middleweight. It’ll be interesting if he moves up again, which I hope he does because the Light Middleweight doesn’t really interest me with the fighters that currently occupy it. But a fight with a rejuvenated Mosley could be a cracker and would draw a lot of American interest.~
Then of course, there’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mayweather wanted this match. Maywetaher, still regarded the best pound for pound despite his retired status which many think he’ll come out of, may fancy his chances against an old Mosley. No disrespect to Mayweather, he’s unbeaten and fought some good names out there and rightly deserves his place. But I always feel Mayweather has taken fights he know he can win. Look through his records at the wins he has had, but there are certain names missing, certainly in the Welterweight division. No Williams, Cotto or Margarito, instead Judah and Baldomir who aren’t exactly the best representatives for the Welterweight division. Then he almost lost to De La Hoya, which he escaped with a split decision. So my point for saying this? Mayweather as good as he is, would fancy beating an old, but rejuvenated Mosley and it would count as a big name. He fights names and reputations, not necessarily the best. I would hope Mosley would win this, but we’ll never know if it don’t happen.
Of course, let’s not rule out a rematch. This is possible, although maybe some may think it would be a pointless exercise given the extent of the beating laid out. Mosley would more than likely look for a new challenge to motivate him, regardless of whether Margarito wants one. I just hope Margarito returns sooner rather than later and puts the record straight.
With a fair amount of options to choose from, it’s back to the drawing board for promoters, who I hope will serve us something even better next time with a bigger surprise!
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