De La Hoya: “He [Mayweather] is maybe the best of all time”

By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya had a lot of respect and praise for undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s) after watching him skillfully defeat WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KO’s) and beat him with ease last night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya, who has previously fought and been beaten by Mayweather in 2007, had this to say about him at Yahoo Sports: “He is the best, possibly – possibly and there are a lot of people who will argue this – but he is maybe the best of all time.”

That’s a huge compliment that De La Hoya is giving Mayweather, because he’s not only saying that he’s the best of this time but all time. This would mean that De La Hoya sees Mayweather better than fighters like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Gerald McClellan, Joe Louis, and Manny Pacquiao, to name just a small handful of fighters. Mayweather, 33, defeated Mosley, one of the best welterweights in the division, quite easily, pounding him at will in every round but the 2nd.

It was such a one-sided fight that it became somewhat boring to watch. Mosley had his moments in the fight, hurting Mayweather in the 2nd round with two huge fight hands. Mayweather held on and came back in the last 30 seconds of the round to land some big shots of his own. Mosley might as well have packed up his bags and gone home for the night at that point in the fight, because he did precious little for the remainder of the fight other than taking shots over and over again from Mayweather.

Mosley seemed to be unable to pull the trigger. He kept waiting and waiting for an opening, but when the opening was there, Mosley couldn’t pull the trigger. From the looks of it, Mosley appeared totally gassed out form the 2nd round on, as if he shot his wad in that round while trying to knock Mayweather out. Instead of getting his 2nd wind like most fighters typically do, Mosley continued to look exhausted for the remainder of the bout. As the fight went into the last three rounds, Mosley was taking more and more punishment.

Mosley’s trainer Nazim Richardson threatened to pull the plug on the fight after the 10th unless Mosley started to show him something in the way of throwing punches. However, all Mosley could do in the 11th was bounce around the ring, throwing weak jabs and little else. The 11th and 12th rounds, like most of the rounds, were completely one-sided with Mayweather pounding Mosley whenever he wanted.

It was so one-sided that the fight was ugly to watch. A much more interesting fight was the one on the undercard between Saul Alvarez and Jose Miguel Cotto. That one was at least partially competitive. Mosley complained after the fight that he felt tight after throwing a lot of punches in the 2nd and continued to feel that way for the rest of the fight. The time off from boxing seems to have really hurt Mosley. Before this fight, Mosley hadn’t fought since January 2009.