By Chris Williams: It appears Manny Pacquiao wasn’t aware that his promoter Bob Arum was making a deal to move his fights from HBO to Showtime until after it occured. According to writer Ronnie Nathanielsz at Philboxing.com, Pacquiao learned about the move from his adviser Michael Koncz, saying “That’s good.” The move, in theory, will enable Pacquiao’s fights to been seen by the larger audience of CBS/Showtime compared to HBO. Whether that will mean larger pay-per-view numbers remains to be seen. Pacquiao is facing 39-year-old Shane Mosley on May 7th, a fighter that many knowledgeable boxing fans feel is totally shot.
However, the less knowledgeable casual fans may scoop this fight up thinking that Mosley is still the same fighter he was 15 years ago and end up a little disappointed when they discover he’s now reduced to serving as a tired punching bag. Mosley fought to a draw in his last fight against Sergio Mora last year, and appeared to lose that fight. Before that, Mosley was easily beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May of last year. As such, Mosley is pretty much coming into his fight with Pacquiao with two consecutive losses instead of wins.
The struggles that Mosley has had in the ring eerily mirrors the problems of Pacquiao’s recent opponents Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, all of which were not fighting well at the time they were put in with Pacquiao. Cotto had barely beaten Clottey and had taken a ton of punishment. Clottey was coming off a loss when he fought Pacquiao, and Margarito had looked terrible in beating little known Roberto Garcia. Before that, Margarito had been stopped by Mosley in early 2009.
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