By Dave Lahr: Golden Boy Promotions is working to put together a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley for possibly May 1st at the MGM Grand. This fight could very well be a match the two best welterweights in the world. That actually might be a good marketing tool for the fight, because these really are probably the two best welterweights in boxing.
I’m not taking anything away from WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, but he hasn’t proven himself yet in the division besides his 12th round TKO win over Miguel Cotto, a fighter that many people felt wasn’t the same fighter after a brutal beating at the hands of Antonio Margarito in July 2008.
Pacquiao might be the most popular fighter in boxing without question, but I’m not ready to put him in the class of Mayweather and Mosley because of his lack of experience against top fighters in the welterweight division. But with Mayweather and Mosley, both of them are deep in experience at welterweight and well skilled for the weight class. This fight has opened up as of today with WBC Andre Berto’s announcement that he was cancelling his January 30th bout with Mosley because of a number of deaths in his family in Haiti because of the deadly earthquake.
Instead of this being a disappointing negative for Mosley, this has become a huge opportunity for the 38-year-old Mosley. Not only will he not have to take the dangerous Berto in a fight that would have likely been a grueling one that would have been close with both fighters taking a lot of punishment, but Mosley will also be in the position to get a huge payday in a mega fight with Mayweather if they can successfully negotiate the fight.
It should be a lot easier to put together a fight between these two fighters because Mosley likely isn’t going to drag his feet over the random blood tests that Mayweather will want for the fight to take place. The biggest question for the fight will be who gets the bigger cut of the pay-per-view revenue.
Mosley is considered by many boxing fans and writers to be the best fighter in the welterweight division after his win over Antonio Margarito last year in January. Although some fans would argue that Mayweather or Pacquiao should be considered to be the best fighter in the division, Mosley is still the one that you hear the most about when people discuss who they consider to be the best at welterweight.
Being the best fighter in the division doesn’t translate into being the most popular are the biggest cash cow unfortunately for Mosley. Mayweather and Pacquiao clearly have the bigger fan base, but Mosley can really help himself if he beats Mayweather. That fight can really remake Mosley and create a whole new series of boxing fans for the aging welterweight champion. A good thing that Mosley and Mayweather have going for them is that by having their fight take place on May 1st instead of March 13th, they won’t be competing with the Pacquiao-Clottey fight that takes place that night at the Dallas Cowboy stadium, in Arlington, Texas.
I have no doubts that the Mosley-Mayweather bout would outsell the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight, but having two mega fights take place on the same night would water down the pay-per-view results because most boxing fans would have to pick one of them to buy because they wouldn’t want to have to pay over $100 for the two of them.
The Mayweather-Mosley fight will prove, at least to me and a number of other boxing fans, who the real number #1 welterweight is in the world. After that, the winner can take on the Pacquiao-Clottey winner, who I see as the number #3 welterweight in the division. It would be great to have the loser of the Mayweather-Mosley fight take on the loser of the Pacquiao-Clottey fight so boxing fans could get a clearer picture of how the top fighters settle out.
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