By Chris Williams: Photo credit Tom Casino/Showtime – Manny Pacquiao leaked a little bit of his feeling about his opponent Shane Mosley ahead of their May 7th fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like many of Pacquiao’s opponent, the 39-year-old Mosley was picked by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum and the choice has been an unpopular one among diehard boxing fans. Arum seems willing to ignore that, because he’s aiming this fight at the casual fan, who will likely have heard of Mosley and won’t realize how shot he is until it’s too late. Arum figures that the diehard boxing fans will likely purchase the Pacquiao-Mosley fight anyway just to see Pacqquiao fight.

In a recent a question and answer session with Pacquiao, as reported by USA Today, Pacquiao was asked the following: “Is Mosley really the best fight out there for you?” Pacquiao then said “For me, I believe that Mosley can give me a good fight on May 7/ I watched his last two fights and he still can punch, and he still has the power. He can move and he has the hand speed. And because of his hand speed and footwork, he can give a good fight.”

That’s less than a ring endorsement of Mosley, isn’t it? I don’t blame Pacquiao for giving the politically correct answer, because he can’t very well skewer Arum’s choice of the 39-year-old shot Mosley, because it would make Arum look like he was cherry picking for a beatable opponent for Pacquiao and happened on the fading Mosley, who hasn’t won a fight in over two years and hasn’t looked at all good in his last two fights. What’s telling is that Mosleyn couldn’t get a fight with Pacquiao when he was fighting well, but as soon as he started looking shot, he suddenly was able to get a fight with him.