Mosley to fight on December 5th against either Clottey or Berto – News

By Boxing News - 08/28/2009 - Comments

By Jason Kim: After wasting time for months hopelessly pursuing a bout against Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley is close to finally having an opponent to fight. According to Dan Rafael, Mosley will be fighting on December 5th against either Joshua Clottey or Andre Berto. Having to settle for these two fighters must be a bitter pill for the 37-year-old Mosley to have swallow, because neither Berto or Clottey will bring in the kind of money that a fight against Pacquiao would.

Promoter Bob Arum didn’t want Pacquiao to fight Mosley and was more interested in having Pacquiao fight one of his own fighters, in this case Miguel Cotto. Clottey, who is almost promoted by Arum, is who was offered to Mosley in place of Pacquiao. So Mosley may not be getting Pacquiao, but he can still get a fight against one of Arum’s other fighters.

It may not be a fight that will be a huge mega fight, but it will be one that helps Clottey’s career, if not Mosley. The much more interesting fighter for Mosley would be Berto, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion. It would be a fight where Berto’s title would be on the line so that Mosley, the WBA welterweight champion, would have a chance at unifying the titles.

However, trying to line up a fight with Berto probably won’t happen. Berto will want a lot of money, and I can’t see it happening. Berto has been brought up against pretty soft opposition and I can’t see him breaking that pattern by taking this fight and end up losing his WBC title, along with his unblemished record.

It would be an exciting fight, much more exciting than watching Mosley fight Clottey, who was recently beaten by Miguel Cotto in a 12 round split decision in June. Berto has really fast hands and a lot of power. But what makes Berto even more appealing to watch is how vulnerable he is as a fighter.

Berto is someone with a lot of natural talent, but like Jermain Taylor, something seems to be missing and it makes him very beatable. The WBC welterweight class has some of the worst talent in the welterweight division, and Berto could probably sit back and defend his WBC title indefinitely for years to come before the WBC finally ranks someone with a shred of ability.

I don’t think Berto is all that great of a fighter. Frankly, I think Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Cotto and Clottey would all likely beat Berto by knockout if they had the chance to fight him. For this reason, I can’t see Berto being allowed to fight a dangerous fighter like Mosley, at least while Mosley still has a shred of talent left in his body.

If we wait around for another 3 to 5 years while Mosley ages more and becomes beatable, I can see Berto suddenly taking the fight with Mosley without any problems. But right now, Mosley is fighting too good for a fighter like Berto.

If I was Mosley, I wouldn’t feel all that good about taking a fight with Clottey, though. That fight doesn’t do anything for Mosley because Clottey was just beaten. I wouldn’t take the fight because it helps out Clottey and Arum, doing little for Mosley.

Now if Arum could set up a deal where if Mosley did him a favor by fighting Clottey, Arum could later on repay Mosley by letting him fight either Pacquiao or Cotto. I could go for that and would then have no issues with fighting Clottey. Minus that, however, I wouldn’t waste my time fighting Clottey. Let him get some good wins under his belt so the public forgets about his loss to Cotto.



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