By Roberto Elmore: After dominating Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley began campaigning for a fight with Floyd Mayweather. He even went as far as climbing in the ring during Mayweather’s interview to challenge him. Shane got his wish and was completely dominated after giving the Mayweather faithful a scare in the second round. In his fight against Mora, he looked even worse fighting to what some might call an undeserving draw. And after two years, he’s gotten his second wish and that is to fight Manny Pacquiao on May 7 in Las Vegas.

Analysis: For Mosley the key will be to establish a slower tempo that he’s comfortable with. His reflexes are not what they used to be as evident against Mayweather. Mosley never had a good jab, but he has to establish one for this fight. It doesn’t have to be a great jab, but one that can keep Pacquiao on the outside giving him something to think about when he comes in to throw his flurry. Stamina will be another factor. He gassed out after the second round against Floyd and said his neck was stiff after the fight. So look for Mosley to try to end the fight early. Shane can not stand still, come straight ahead, or try to load up with one punch. If he has any chance, he must Erik Morales Pacquiao. If he chooses to box Pacman, he must stick with the game plan through and through; by and by. What can happen is Pacquiao can hit Mosley with combinations causing Shane to say “Man forget this. I’m going back to what got me thirty eight knockouts”. He must be head strong.

For Pacquiao the key obviously will be speed. He knows Sugar is physically stronger so look for Pacquiao to jump on his opponent early and stay out of range. The good thing for Pacquiao is that, against Mayweather, according to compu box, Mosley only landed 92 out of 452 punches; 20%. This was due to Floyd making adjustments and executing his game plan. Pacquiao must pick his punches wisely and not waste any; even if he hurts his opponent. He was very accurate against Margarito landing 474 out of 1069. 411 of those punches were power shots. Manny will taste a few of Mosley punches, but he needs to stay out of the way of the big ones.

Intangibles: This fight will due one huge thing if nothing else for Pacquiao and that is silence Bernard Hopkins and many other critics of him avoiding black fighters. However, if Pacquiao wins the Pac faithful will say “okay he fought a black fighter what more do you want”? Bernard Hopkins did say black fighters from the streets or inner cities would be successful”. But many writers and reporters will try to leave out the part where he said “but I do think the fighters like the Ray Leonards or anyone like that would beat Pacquiao if they came one their game”.

(Source: http://www.thisis50.com/profiles/blogs/bernard-hopkins-says-manny)

For those who don’t know Sugar Ray Leonard, he had a very slick style of fighting and knew how to use his speed, footwork, and combinations to his advantage. You can you tube some of his fights. Shane is in no way a slick boxer.

Pacquiao looked awesome against Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, and Antonio Margarito, all of whom had no footwork, good defense, head movement, and came straight ahead. And Mosley will be no different. Mosley consistently says that he’s bigger, stronger and faster than Pacquiao. Let me set the record straight; WHO CARES. He said the same thing going into his fight with Mayweather and we all saw what happened there. Arum will try to sell this fight based on those premises. Again, height, strength, and speed are NOTHING if one does not have SKILL behind those attributes. Two years ago, this fight might have meant something, but to many boxing fans this nothing more than a stay busy fight. However, this is boxing and anything can happen. After all, how many people saw George Foreman beating Michael Moorer? I will withhold my prediction. It will be a matter of who executes their game plan to the fullest. Peace to all.