By Jason Kim: I like Shane Mosley and think he’s had a great career as a fighter, but I think he may have stepped out of his comfort zone in taking on Floyd Mayweather Jr. Mosley, now 38, used to be a real good mover in his time, but age has been somewhat cruel to him, slowing down his once fast foot speed to the point where Mosley is now more or less a plodding type of welterweight, good mainly for forward and back type of attacks.

Mosley is fine when he has an opponent that stands in front of him and doesn’t move like Antonio Margarito, the last fighter that Mosley beat in a 9th round TKO in January 2009. But if you take Mosley and put him in with a fighter that uses any kinds of lateral movement and angles, Mosley looks hopelessly lost. In looking at Mosley’s defeat against Miguel Cotto, I was astonished how good Cotto’s foot movement was in that fight.

Cotto doesn’t get credit for being good with his feet, but he looked damn good against Mosley in that fight, and was able to shift around enough that he wasn’t standing directly in front of Mosley all the time. Mayweather is way beyond Cotto in moving around the ring, and he’s not going to allow Mosley to set up his offense for a second. I think we’ll see early on that Mosley’s old wheels will be like their stuck in glue as Mayweather uses movement to keep Mosley constantly guessing and unable to land his shots.

I think Mosley would be a handful for Mayweather if Floyd makes the mistake of becoming immobile and letting Mosley have a target to hit. I doubt that Mayweather will ever give the 38-year-old Mosley a chance, because he knows Mosley’s weakness already from having seen Shane’s fights. Why make it easy on the old warrior by standing there and letting him get his shots off.

I think Mosley is still a great fighter and can probably beat all the other welterweights with the exceptions of ones that move a lot around the ring, but I see him being hopelessly lost against Mayweather on May 1st. Mosley can help himself if he can try to get as close as Mayweather as possible so that he can use his punch and clinch technique.

This is a new style of fighting that Mosley used successfully against Margarito, and it worked like a charm against him. If Mayweather isn’t thinking clearly, then Mosley can take advantage of him by staying near him and holding as much as possible to limit the shots that Mayweather is hitting him with. If Mosley can limit Mayweather’s offense to a trickle by clinching, then Mosley could win.