By Matt Stein: World Boxing Association welterweight champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley is reportedly willing to fight Manny Pacquiao at a catch weight. In the past, Mosley, 37, has said that he couldn’t make the 143 and 144 pound catch weight limit that Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach wants him to come in at.
However, it looks as if Mosley has suddenly had a chance of mind about taking the fight at that weight. Perhaps it was Pacquiao’s recent decision not to fight Mosley or Miguel Cotto and to wait around instead for the winner of the July 18th bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Pacquiao has said that he doesn’t plan on fighting again until October 17th, against an unnamed opponent. With only three months between that date and the Mayweather-Marquez fight, it would seem unlikely that either of them would be available to take a fight with Pacquiao at such an early date in time.
It would leave both of them with little time to train for his southpaw style and quickness. Although in Marquez’s case, he might not need nearly as much time because he’s fought Pacquiao twice before and done quite well against him, fighting to a draw the first time in 2004 and then losing a 12-round split decision in March 2008.
Both fights were controversial, however, with many people feeling that Marquez has out-boxed Pacquiao in both fights and should have been given the decision. In the past month, Roach seemed eager to get Pacquiao in the ring with Mosley, saying that he would be the perfect opponent for Pacquiao due to Mosley’s aggressive style of fighting.
However, Roach would always immediately say that Mosley had turned down the idea of a fight because he supposedly couldn’t make the 143 or 144 pound catch weight. It seemed kind of hard to swallow at the time, because that’s only three to four pounds that Mosley would have to lose to make the catch weight and he would likely getting his biggest payday of his career should he take the fight against Pacquiao.
Having fought as a lightweight for many years where Mosley was one of the best in the world at that weight, he would have a good chance of taking off the needed weight to make the 143 or whatever pounds that Roach and Pacquiao would want Mosley to come in at for the fight to happen.
The one fear is that now that Mosley is interested in taking the fight that Roach and Pacquiao might up the ante by making Mosley come in at an even lower weight such as 140, seeing that he’s now eager to make the fight happen.
This would be the kind of gamesmanship that I would expect from Roach to get an extra advantage for his Filipino fighter. However, if there’s anyone that should be given an extra advantage it’s Mosley, since he’s seven years older than Pacquiao and has had a lot of very tough punishing fights in his long boxing career.
Mosley is coming off a 9th round stoppage over Antonio Margarito to capture the WBA welterweight title in January 2009, one of Mosley’s best win of his career.
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