By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KO’s) fought to an unimpressive 12 round draw on Saturday night against middleweight Sergio Mora (22-1-1, 6 KO’s) at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. This was supposed to have been a fight in which the 39-year-old Mosley was trying to stake a case that he should get big money fights against Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.
Instead, Mosley showed very in the fight, looking slow, getting hit a lot and unable to pull the trigger. After the fight, Mosley said he’d like to fight Cotto next. However, it’s hard to see what the appeal would be in that fight for Cotto and for boxing fans, because Cotto already beat Mosley by a 12 round decision in November 2007.
Why should Cotto have to go over old ground against a much more deteriorated Mosley, especially with Mosley looking so bad coming off of a 12 round draw against Mora. Cotto would be much better off seeking out a rematch with Manny Pacquiao and/or a revenge rematch against Antonio Margarito. I think those are the most logical fights for Cotto, besides a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
I would forget about Mosley and Kermit Cintron if I was Cotto. The money fights are Pacquiao and Margarito. If Mosley wants to fight someone next, he needs to go after Joshua Clottey or Vanes Martirosyan.
Maybe if Mosley does Bob Arum of Top Rank a favor by fighting those guys, he might be interested in letting Cotto fight Mosley. Of course, Arum won’t do that unless Mosley beats Clottey or Martirosyan, and I don’t think Mosley can at this point in his career. But those might be the best options for him right now.
Whether you ultimately believe that Mosley should have won the fight or not, there’s no getting away from the fact that he looked sloppy, slow, old and not up to his previous form. Mosley was hit a lot as he was forward and on the inside, Mora pretty much had his way with Mosley.
There’s no doubt that Mora did a lot of clinching, but he was still landing a lot of punches in between the clinches. If you look at Mosley’s victory over Antonio Margarito last year, Shane fought exactly the same way that Mora did.
He would come forward, land one or two punches and then immediately grab Margarito in a tight clinch. It was the old punch and grab technique, and it looks like Mora turned the tables on Mosley and used it against him with great effectiveness.
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