By Jason Kim: Former three division world champion Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KO’s) looked nothing less than horrible in his last fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May. Mosley, 39, lost that bout by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision and showed absolutely nothing after hurting Mayweather with a big right hand in the 2nd round. Instead of jumping all over Mayweather and trying to finish him off, Mosley quickly ran out of gas and was unable to finish Mayweather.
Mosley stayed tired for the remainder of the fight, rarely throwing punches and just looking like a statue. Mosley will be returning to the ring this Saturday night against former WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio Mora (22-1-1, 6 KO’s) in a 12 round bout at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. Mora isn’t much of a puncher, but then again neither was Mayweather and he really did a number on Mosley.
Mora’s thing isn’t to try and hurt his opponents. What he specializes in is making them look bad and picking them apart with pinpoint shots. The 39-year-old Mosley cannot afford to lose another fight, especially against someone like Mora, who isn’t a huge super star. A loss for Mosley in this fight would pretty wreck any ideas that Mosley has been having recently about wanting to fight Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and a rematch with Mayweather.
This is why this fight seems all the more strange for Mosley to have taken. It’s a high risk low reward fight for Mosley. Getting beaten by Mayweather, Cotto or Andre Berto isn’t nearly as bad as getting beaten by Mora. A loss in this fight has to be a signal for Mosley to hang up his gloves. If he looks really bad in losing this fight like he did against Mayweather, then I think Mosley will have little other choice but to hang up his gloves and retire. I don’t think Mosley will, though. I suspect he’s going to follow in the same path as Evander Holyfield and just keep fighting regardless of the fact that he’s suffering more and more losses.
Mosley looked great 1 ½ years ago in beating Antonio Margarito by a 9th round stoppage in January 2009. However, that’s a long time ago for a fighter that’s 39-years-old like Mosley. He may not be the same fighter that beat Margarito anymore. When you get as old as Mosley, the body can change rapidly over night and age to the point where you can no longer beat top fighters.
In the loss to Mayweather, Mosley not only looked as if his stamina was no longer there for him, but his reflexes appeared to be gone as well. He could no longer respond quickly to openings that Mayweather presented for him. Mosley just stood and when he did react, he was much too slow to capitalize on what Mayweather was giving him.
Mora is an excellent fighter and you have to give Mosley credit for picking someone as good as him. But in hindsight, Mosley probably should have opted for a bigger star because he’s going to look really bad if Mora hands him a Winky Wright type of beating this Saturday. Mosley was easily beaten by Wright in back to back fights in 2004. Mora does a lot of the same things that Wright does in the ring, only better because he’s a much better mover than him.
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