By Manuel Perez: In a sign of how interested World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) is in fighting Manny Pacquiao, Shane has challenged Manny to meet him at 140 for Pacquiao’s obscure IBO light welterweight title. Mosley is clearly putting the pressure on Pacquiao, because the Filipino star and his trainer mastermind Freddie Roach has been real big on making fighters melt down in weight to fight at catch weights.
The theory is by making his opponents melt down in weight, it leaves them too weak or dehydrated to fight at their optimal ability, softening them up just enough for Pacquiao to beat them. Naturally, many fighters want no part of catch weight fights if it means that they’ll have to be the ones moving down in weight.
But this is why it seems so strange for Mosley to be taking the reverse course by daring Pacquiao to fight him at not just 142 or 143, which is what Pacquiao and Roach have been dreaming up for Miguel Cotto, but at 140. The move is a bold one by Mosley, and it shows clearly his desperation in getting a fight with Pacquiao. But unfortunately it’s a wasted gesture on Mosley’s part, because Pacquiao and his team want no part of fighting Mosley.
I don’t think it matters a hill of beans what weight that Mosley comes in at, Pacquiao and Roach would still likely prefer the much easier pickings of fighting Cotto, who looks very beatable at this point in his career. Cotto was ripped apart and softened up for Pacquiao by Antonio Margarito last year in July and then Cotto took an additional beating in winning a controversial 12-round split decision against Joshua Clottey recently on June 13th.
I saw the fight several times and the best that I can give Cotto is four rounds. If I were to have mercy on Cotto, I would score it a draw but I’d have to have slept through several of the rounds where Cotto was running all over the ring and doing nothing but bleeding all over the place. Faced with a fight against a dangerous opponent like Mosley, who stopped Margarito in the 9th round in January, and Cotto, who is going through some hard times in his career, it’s painfully obvious who Pacquiao is going to face.
Just looking at Pacquiao’s track record of fighting a shot Oscar De La Hoya, war ravaged Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Ricky Hatton, it’s obvious that Pacquiao won’t even be considering taking on Mosley. Forget it, there’s no way Pacquiao would break the mold that he’s set in his career when choosing opponents and suddenly start fighting good fighters for a change.
Mosley can talk until he’s blue in the face about this weight or that weight he’s willing to fight Pacquiao, but it isn’t going to happen. I don’t know why Pacquiao is considered to be the top pound for pound fighter. I’ve lost complete respect for that title now that Pacquiao is mentioned in the same breath.
Here’s the deal: Once Pacquiao finishes off Cotto and sends him along his way, Pacquiao will probably go after another soft touch, someone like Amir Khan or Andre Berto. It won’t be Mosley, so he needs to get that through his head and quit wasting time calling out Pacquiao. This is about finding beatable – read: easy opponents – and fighters like Mosley need not apply. This shouldn’t be news for Mosley, because he’s been calling Pacquiao out for ages now.
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