By Matt Stein: Getting beaten is one thing, but the way that Antonio Margarito lost to Shane Mosley, losing by a 9th round stoppage and losing every round, was far worse. There’s no question that Margarito used the wrong game plan against Mosley, and lacked a plan B to use when he discovered early on that he was having problems with Mosley’s superior speed. Rather than change tactics and come up with something different, Margarito seemed to keep pushing forward as if he was under the impression that he would simply wear Mosley down in the same way that Antonio wore Miguel Cotto down in defeating him by an 11th round TKO on July 26th, 2008.
By the 6th round, trailing by five rounds, Margarito needed to employ a backup plan to use against Mosley. However, it appeared that he had none. Could it be that Margarito didn’t factor in that he might not be able to succeed using his typical high pressure, withering style of fighting? If so, then he made a huge mistake by nor preparing for the possibility that he might not have the speed or that his pressure might not be enough to beat a fighter as good as Mosley.
What Margarito should have done was work more on his jab leading up to the fight to make sure that if he’d unable to fight it out at close range for whatever reason, he could use a long jab from the outside to pick up points and try to wear Mosley down. Sadly, Margarito rarely jabbed in the fight with any effectiveness and when he did, it was more of a pawing jab and not thrown with any kind of real authority.
I realize that Margarito has never been much of a jabber, but that’s something he should have worked on for an important fight like this. He might not have needed one against sluggers like Kermit Cintron or Cotto, but against a former pound for pound fighter like Mosley, having a good jab was a prerequisite to beating him.
Margarito could have done a better job with Mosley’s speed advantage by staying on top of Mosley, not letting him get space enough to use his fast combinations. At close range, Mosley was essentially helpless and did little. This would have been a good time for Margarito to land hard combinations. But above all, Margarito needed to keep close to Mosley at all times and not given him room to throw his faster shots.
On the inside, Margarito could have done better by pounding Mosley as hard as he could with his free hands. Mosley often clinched, tying up one or both arms, but mostly arm locking one of Margarito’s arms. With his free hand, Margarito should have hit Mosley as hard as he could to the body, hear or wherever to make Mosley not want to clinch as often as he did. In the same token, Margarito could have helped himself if he landed a couple of well aimed low blows to try and keep Mosley from clinching quite so frequently.
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