(Photo credit: WBC Alma Montiel) By Dan Ambrose: It’s really bad when you get a 40-year-old fighter pooled from the 2nd tier in Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) to fight for the World Boxing Council title on May 5th against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, as Mosley hasn’t won a fight in over three years since beating Antonio Margarito by a 9th round TKO in January 2009, yet Mosley is still being given a title shot against the unbeaten 21-year-old Alvarez.
Earlier today, WBC President Jose Sulaiman said that former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye was an unsuitable opponent for WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko because Haye wasn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBC. That sounds reasonable enough except when you look at the top 15 in the junior middleweight division in the WBC rankings and notice that Mosley is nowhere to be found in the top 15. So, what’s up with that? It’s not okay for Vitali to fight a non-15 ranked fighter but it’s okay for Alvarez?
It doesn’t look good for Mosley in this fight because he’s had problems pulling the trigger on his punches in his last three fights since 2010, losing two of the three but fighting poor enough to deserve to lose all three. He just doesn’t look good anymore and in watching him stand next to the young Alvarez at their recent press conference in Los Angeles, Mosley looked positive ancient in comparison. He’s not only fighting poorly, but he looks old and that isn’t a good thing.
Alvarez is just looking for a notable name to add to his resume, and Mosley fits the bill. He’s not dangerous like guys like James Kirkland and Vanes Martirosyan, but has the right name to fool the casual boxing fans who have no clue to that Mosley is over 40 and no longer what he once was.
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