Can Arum, Roach and HBO remake Mosley’s image, turning him into a good opponent for Pacquiao?

By Boxing News - 12/22/2010 - Comments

By Jason Kim: It’s going to be interesting to see how Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, trainer Freddie Roach and HBO work together to try and turn Shane Mosley into a dangerous looking opponent for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao to fight on May 7th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. On paper, Mosley appears to be a terrible opponent for Pacquiao, a huge step down from the guys that have been fed to the Filipino star in the past year.

I thought before that Arum had been matching Pacquiao soft by putting him in with his faded Top Rank stable fighters Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey, but Mosley looks far worse than those guys lately based on how shot he’s looked in his last two fights. This is going to be a thrill and a little bit sickening to watch Arum, Roach, with the help of another one of HBO’s 24/7 Pacquiao/Mosley series, builds Mosley up to be someone that has a chance to beat Pacquiao.

The trick here is to make Mosley look like a monster by showing his earlier fights in his career and emphasizing how strong he is on the inside when throwing combinations. Roach is already off to an early start in remaking Mosley, saying he thinks Mosley is a tougher fight than Juan Manuel Marquez and Andre Berto. I don’t believe that for a second. I would buy what Roach is saying if he didn’t say in the past that Clottey would be a more interesting fight than Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I knew going into that fight what Clottey would do, which turned out to be nothing as he just covered up all night long and played the part of a punching bag. This is why I can’t take Roach seriously now that he’s hyping Mosley as Pacquiao’s opponent. They want this fight to get huge pay-per-view numbers, but the problem is they weren’t willing to match Pacquiao up against someone with the chance of beating him. Mosley really stunk out the joint in his last two fights against Mayweather and Sergio Mora.

If the casual fan has any memory at all of Mosley from those fights, they’ll stay away from Pacquiao-Mosley in droves and will save their hard-earned money by not purchasing what will likely be a very expensive fight on PPV. They haven’t put a price on the Pacquiao vs. Mosley fight yet, but based on the huge prices put on Pacquiao’s recent fights, I’d be willing to bet that it will go for around $55. That’s a lot of money to pay to see a poor fight between a fighter in his prime against a fighter that’s over-the-hill.



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