Pacquiao vs. Mosley: Shane Is the Right Choice

By Boxing News - 12/23/2010 - Comments

By Rod Bautista: It’s official Manny Pacquiao will face Shane Mosley on May 7, 2011. As many contributors have written in the last of couple of weeks, there are a lot of people questioning The Pacquiao Camp’s choice of the 39 year old Mosley. On the surface it does look like Pacquiao is going to fight a Mosley who is passed his prime. There are a few factors, in my humble opinion, that make Mosley the right opponent at this point in time.

Floyd Mayweather Is Simply Not Available

Unless you’re totally oblivious you should know that a fight with Floyd Mayweather is the fight everyone wants to see. Floyd is having some legal problems so his camp has pulled him out of any fight negotiations until his legal problems are solved. As we know that could be quite some time. Although I do sympathize, how does that mean he can’t fight? As far as I know there is no court order against Floyd making a living, and his legal problems haven’t stopped him from traveling to Europe or attending NBA games and such. His life goes on, but not when it comes to making upwards of $40Million?

For whatever reason this fight still isn’t in the works. I’m not even going to start with the PED thing because that has taken a back seat to Floyd’s legal problems, but the bottom line is it ain’t happening.

Andre Berto Has Not Fought Enough To Earn His Shot

I Know you’re all saying At least he has a belt and he is undefeated right. That is all true, but unless you’re an ardent boxing fan you have no clue who he is. He needs to fight someone of merit to become a draw. His postponed fight with Shane Mosley was supposed to be his coming out party, but it didn’t transpire, and he subsequently has defended his title twice against Carlos Quintana, and Freddy Hernandez both by impressive TKO. Most boxing experts would agree that although Berto is an exciting skill full boxer he lacks the experience to deserve a fight.

I would love to see this fight, but it just isn’t how boxing works. Berto needs at least one more fight against a notable opponent to get his pay day. Pacquiao fought though the best of the best between Barrera I and Marquez II to earn his coming out party against Oscar De La Hoya. The rest as we all know is History.

Juan Manuel Marquez Hasn’t Done Anything Above Lightweight

I know I know you’re right Marquez is the last guy to really threaten Pacquiao, and you all want to see number three. Mostly all the haters want to see Marquez finally beat Pacquiao. If people are using Shane’s last two fights to describe how inferior he is, then you have to consider how Marquez looked at 145 against Floyd Mayweather. He looked slow and bloated and was thoroughly beaten.

If Marquez fought Berto, Alexander, Bradley or even Amir Khan or Hatton and won then he would have a better chance of justifying a third fight. Let’s face it Manny is a Welterweight now, and if Marquez wants to fight him there he needs to prove he can fight there too.

Finally I will bring something up that really hasn’t been talked about.

What If Floyd Mayweather Stayed Retired?

Let’s say for a moment that Floyd Mayweather didn’t come out of retirement? Nobody has really talked about that and in reality Floyd really hasn’t done anything, averaging 1 fight a year. For a moment let’s say Floyd stayed retired. Where would that put us?

#1 I don’t think Marquez is even in the discussion, because he is too small to really even consider moving up. The only reason he moved up was because he had a huge payday and a huge opportunity with his fight against Floyd.

Manny was moving up regardless. He already beat De La Hoya, Dias, and Hatton when Floyd came out of retirement. Many would say the heat that Manny received during his ascent was the reason Mayweather laced them up again. So that being said if Marquez wanted a shot at Pacquiao he would still have to beat someone of note in the welterweight division.

#2 Berto and Mosley would have definitely taken place, therefore one of them would have been a clear contender for Manny’s P4P title. In reality Floyd put a wrench in the ascent of most of the fighters everybody is clamoring about. Think about it how much heat would Berto, Bradley, and Alexander have if Mayweather was gone?

I’m not saying that he should have stayed away, but in reality if he did there would clearly be more players in the Pacquiao lottery. With that being said the truth is Sugar Shane would have still definitely been in the mix. Cotto doesn’t nearly get dismissed as much as he is, Margarito getting reinstated would be more important, and the rest of the 140 to 154 crowd gets more recognition because we wouldn’t have the desire to see the mega fight.

The bottom line is if you’ve been around the boxing scene long enough you know how it works. Whether you agree or not the Mosley fight makes the most sense at this point in time.

I also think that most of you are under estimating Mosley’s ability and the fight he still has left in him. Sure he looked bad against the most gifted defensive boxer of our generation. How was he supposed to look? The Mora fight was not a good fight period especially style wise. Mosley is no slouch, and I will definitely buy this fight as will all you hardened fight fans. The stars will be out that night as well,and it will be the most exposed boxing match of 2011. I know that in the end it will be at the very least a very entertaining fight, and until Floyd Mayweather’s situation gets straightened out, I guess it will have to do.



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