By Jim Dower: Shane Mosley takes great pleasure in shutting up critics that don’t believe he has a chance to beats certain opponents. This Saturday night the 38-year-old Mosley hopes to shut up even more critics who don’t believe he can beat undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 1st. Mosley says “Shutting down naysayers, I love that,” in an article at the Los Angeles Times. “That’s why [Antonio] Margarito got what he did.”
Mosley defeated Margarito by a 9th round TKO last year in January to take his WBA welterweight title. Going into that fight, few people gave Mosley much of any chance at winning the fight because they saw him as old and past his prime. However, Mosley had a perfect game plan for that fight and was able to beat Margarito to the punch all night long and grab him in a clinch to keep Margarito from revving up his high volume offense.
Mosley is going to need an even better strategy this Saturday night against the 33-year-old Mayweather, because he’s not someone that can be beaten by the old ‘punch and grab’ technique. It’s going to take a lot of chasing, speed and power for Mosley to beat Mayweather. It’s also going to require a good chin, as Mosley is going to be getting hit a lot as he comes in trying to land his shots.
Mayweather doesn’t typically throw a lot of punches, but he is deadly accurate with the shots he does throw and he’s capable of throwing with good power. Mayweather doesn’t get a lot of credit for his power, but he’s capable of taking out an opponent that really goes after him hard. We saw what happened to Ricky Hatton when he tried to use heavy pressure against Mayweather.
Hatton ended up taking a one-sided beating and was eventually stopped in the 10th round in 2007 by Mayweather. Mosley has better hand speed and technique than Hatton and won’t be leaping in looking to land the way that Hatton was in trying to land his hooks. However, Mosley will have to find a way to pressure Mayweather and to force him to fight or else he’ll get picked apart all night long by the younger fighter. Mosley has a lot riding on this fight. If he wins, he’ll get another big payday in a rematch with Mayweather.
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