By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is 100% convinced that 39-year-old Shane Mosley is the best possible opponent for Pacquiao compared to the young unbeaten, blistering fast and powerful Andre Berto and Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez. Mosley hasn’t won a fight in almost two whole years, and Arum wants boxing fans to believe that Mosley is the best fighter for Pacquiao to fight on May 7th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. You have to wonder whether Arum means that Mosley is the best guy for Pacquiao to fight in order for Pacquiao to keep winning and avoid getting beat up in front of millions of fans.
It’s hard to know what Arum is really looking for nowadays in terms of opponents for Pacquiao, because Arum hasn’t matched Pacquiao against a dangerous opponent since putting him in with Miguel Cotto last year. And even that fight really wasn’t much of a dangerous fight for Pacquiao, since Cotto hadn’t looked like the same fighter physically since suffering a horrible beating at the hands of Antonio Margarito a year earlier. But in Pacquiao’s last two fights, Arum has matched him up against Joshua Clottey and Margarito rather than guys like Paul Williams, Juan Manuel Marquez, Sergio Martinez, and Timothy Bradley.
Pacquiao and Arum had a chance to fight Mayweather, but Pacquiao failed to agree to the 14 day cut off for blood tests for performance enhancing drugs that Mayweather wanted. That was the best chance to make the fight happen it went down the tubes when Pacquiao wouldn’t agree to that. Arum quickly put Pacquiao in with his little known fighter Clottey, who was coming off a loss to Cotto. It was a poor pick of an opponent, and Pacquiao, of course, won the fight. Instead of a better fighter being chosen like Marquez, Clottey, a Top Rank stable fighter, was put in with Pacquiao.
After that, Margarito was selected, even though Margarito had no boxing license and had fought only once in the past year and looked nothing like his former self in beating up some unknown contender at junior middleweight. The win for Margarito enabled him to get ranked at number #1 by the WBC in the junior middleweight division, despite the fact that it was the only fight that Margarito had fought at that weight in the past six years. Arum then put Pacquiao in with Margarito to fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. Although it counted for Pacquiao as him winning an 8th world title, it’s hard to really take that seriously given how Margarito was suddenly positioned at number #1 spot by the WBC after fighting only one time at junior middleweight against one of the fringe contenders Roberto Garcia.
Arum may think Mosley is the best opponent for Pacquiao, but it’s difficult to imagine Mosley being better than guys like Marquez, Berto, Saul Alvarez, Sergio Martinez or Paul Williams. I do see Mosley as being the better known fighter compared to those guys, but that’s about it. Mosley looks totally shot, and I can see a lot of unhappy people when/if this fight turns out to be another one-sided snoozer like Pacquiao’s last two fights against Arum’s stable fighters.
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