Mosley: “He’s [Mayweather] not going to beat me”

By Chris Williams: WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) doesn’t plan on losing tonight against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (40-0, 25 KO’s). In an article at the BBC, Mosley says “He’s [Mayweather] not going to beat me. When the fight starts, I’m going to go out there. I’m going to throw some traps here and there, touch him here and there. See what’s going on. I’ll probably be able to tell from the first bell what kind of fight it’s going to be.” I can see what kind of fight it will be as well. As soon as Mayweather starts landing clean counter punches, it’s going to awaken the brawling instinct in Mosley and he’s going to be looking to get in and pay Mayweather back with hard shots.

Mayweather, obviously, will be trying to move and land more pot shots to catch Mosley on the way in. However, Mayweather will come to a rest against the ropes, likely in the corner, and try to fight Mosley with his back against the ropes to rest his legs. This is where Mosley will be able to land effectively against Mayweather. Going to the ropes is the wrong kind of tactic to take against Mosley, as he eats up fighters that back themselves against the ropes with no escape round.

Mayweather will get a lot of opportunities to land short hooks and straight rights while in close. But I think he’s going to be looking to cover up when Mosley is opening up with his combinations. If Mosley throws a lot of punches like he sometimes does, he could bottle up Mayweather for long stretches of the fight and make him focus too much energy on defending himself. Mayweather doesn’t like to get hit and getting pounded on by Mosley could take something out of him by the midpoint of the fight.

If Mosley can keep this up into the second half of the fight, he could end up stopping Mayweather. You have to remember that Mayweather has been fighting hand-picked opponents for some time now, and really hasn’t taken on a quality fighter his own size in many years. When you steer yourself away from big challenges for prolonged periods of time, bad things happen when you’re forced to fight a really tough opponent all of a sudden. To be sure, Mayweather probably would have never fought Mosley had it not been for Manny Pacquiao taking on one top fighter after another in the welterweight division, reducing them into a beaten mass of flesh before long.

Mosley plans on using his left hand more against Mayweather, saying “It’s been proven. Not just Oscar [De La Hoya], but other fighters. Some of the southpaws fought him pretty good with their left hands. So maybe it’s not just a jab, maybe it’s a just a left hand. But that’s just one strategy. I can’t just base my fight on throwing a jab. You have to be ready for a bunch of different things, because you’re fighting a special fighter.”

This is what makes Mosley so great – his ability to adapt again and again over the course of a fight. Few boxers have a plan ‘B’ to fall back on. In Mosley’s case, he has a plan ‘C’, ‘D’ and so on to fall back on if what he’s using isn’t working for him.