By Eric Thomas: It’s more than a little sad that the best fighter in the welterweight division Shane Mosley has essentially been frozen out by the arguably more popular fighters in boxing, such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. But that’s what appears to be happening.

And even after Mayweather eventually fights Pacquiao, which will likely take place next year as long as Mayweather and Pacquiao get by their next opponents in one piece, I still highly doubt that Mosley will get a shot against either Mayweather Pacquiao.

I can’t see it happening as long as Mosley is looking good in the ring. It’s a whole different matter once Mosley starts to look old and shot. Then I can see something possibly happening where either Mayweather or Pacquiao get a sudden interest to fight Mosley.

However, my guess it that Mosley will have to look really shot for that to happen, because he’s far too dangerous for Pacquiao and Mayweather to fight right now. The problem for Mosley is that if he continues to fight at a high level for another a year or two, then Mayweather and Pacquiao might opt not to fight him for fear of losing to an older fighter and end up looking bad.

It’s kind of like the case with 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins, in which you’re in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation if you fight him. In other words, if you beat Hopkins then you get very little credit because of his advanced age.

Because, after all, if you’re expected to beat a fighter as old as Hopkins. But if you lose to a fighter as old as Hopkins, then you end up looking really bad. I can see the same thing happening with Mosley if he continues to look good in the ring in the future. Less and less opponents will want to fight him and risk looking bad.

With none of the big named opponents willing to fight Mosley, he now will be fighting the only fighter with a halfway decent name that is willing to fight him, former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Joshua Clottey. The two will be fighting on December 26th at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles.

I know Mosley wanted to fight someone with a little more of a name than Clottey, but with absolutely no interest from Pacquiao, Mayweather and the other top welterweights, Mosley had little choice but to take the fight or else sit idle and go hungry.

For Mosley, it’s like having a plate of spinach in front of him and hating the idea of eating it when he would rather eat a nice juicy steak. Having to settle for a fighter like Clottey, who is nowhere near as popular as himself or the other top fighters that Mosley would like to fight, has to be highly disappointing for Mosley.

For a fighter like Mosley who has multiple wins over fighters like Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas, this has got to really hurt. But even worse, though, is knowing that he’s the best fighter in the welterweight division, yet not having any of the other top fighters being willing to fight him.