By John F. McKenna (McJack): With Floyd Mayweather semi retired and apparently out of the picture for the time being, Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO’s) is widely accepted as the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Manny has taken some heat from boxing critics and fans alike who claim that he is cherry picking his recent opponents. His decision to fight Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KO’s) on May 7, 2011 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has not done anything to quench the criticism.
When looking at why match-ups are made the money that a fight will draw is usually the over riding factor. On Jan 31, 2011 Pacman fever hit the MGM Grand with 16,000 tickets sold in just three hours for his upcoming fight with Mosley. Promoter Bob Arum could not contain his enthusiasm when he made the announcement of the advance ticket sales for the fight, gushing that he had never seen anything like it. Arum recently made the stunning announcement on January 28, 2011 that he was switching from HBO to Showtime. This will give Arum the opportunity to showcase Pacquiao’s talent before a much larger viewing audience. Showtime has a viewer base of over 100 million as opposed to HBO’s 30 million. Mosley is no slouch when it comes to generating excitement and selling tickets. His fight with Floyd Mayweather on May 1, 2010 sold 15,000 tickets also at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mosley is very optimistic when speaking of his chances against Pacquiao. Mosley pointed out that Antonio Margarito was able to land numerous punches on the Pacman before he was overwhelmed by his speed, power and overall ring generalship. “Sugar” Shane feels that he fights more intelligently than Margarito and has a better game plan than Antonio exhibited last November. Mosley is set to exploit what he feels are weaknesses in Manny’s defense. Shane exudes confidence that he can defeat Pacquiao because he has speed and hits with power and can land multiple punches when he corners him. He feels that his fighting style is a good matchup for defeating Manny. Mosley defeated Margarito in impressive fashion in 2009 and feels that he still has more than enough left in the tank to handle Pacquiao. Shane believes that boxing writers and fans alike are going to be surprised at the outcome of his showdown with Pacquiao.
Pacquiao of course will be heavily favored in the May 7, 2011 showdown with Mosley, but he is not going to take him for granted. Manny and his trainer Freddie Roach are going to be working on a strategy of their own that they feel will be successful against Mosley. They know that Mosley will be at his most dangerous in the early rounds and they are anticipating that Shane will come out firing. Mosley will also enjoy a height and reach advantage as most of Pacquiao’s opponents have. Shane is also much quicker than Manny’s recent opponents. Pacquiao will be training for a very tough extended fight knowing that Mosley has never been KO’d in his long career. Pacquiao, being the ultimate warrior, also knows that even if he defeats Mosley the inevitable comparison will be made between his performance and Mayweather’s against a common opponent.
The contest should be exciting and entertaining. Pacquiao will be gunning for his fourteenth straight victory. At 32 years of age he appears to be at the peak of his greatness. Mosley, in the twilight of his career, knows that if he does not pull a victory off in this fight his chances of participating in another Mega Bucks fight will be slim.
A five city tour to promote the fight will begin on February 10, 2011 starting in Los Angeles, then moving to Las Vegas, New York, Washington and San Francisco. This is one of those times where the fight may live up to the hype.
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