By Allan Fox: 40-year-old Shane Mosley doesn’t see himself as a toothless old lion ready to be ripped apart and put out of his misery for once for all in his fight on May 5th against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez on HBO pay per view. Mosley sees himself as a younger coming into knock off a young champion and capture another belt.
Mosley said “I see myself not as an old warrior but a young killer. I don’t buy into the 40-year-old…I’m coming to fight like I fought with [Antonio] Margarito.”
Coincidentally, the Margarito fight just happens to be the last time that Mosley won a fight and that was three long years ago. Mosley has fought exactly three times since the Margarito win and lost two of the three fights. Mosley should have lost all three unfortunately, as he looked dreadful in getting a 12 round draw against Sergio Mora in 2010. Mosley’s losses during this time came against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, which you can’t blame Mosley for. He was simply in with guys that were on another level as him and likely still would have been had Mosley been in his youth still and not 40.
Alvarez is going to make it really tough for Mosley because of his power, defensive skills and high pressure fighting style. He’s going to keep applying pressure all fight long and will be making Mosley fight harder than he wants to and what his aging body is capable of fighting.
Mosley isn’t a young killer, he’s an aging fighter desperately in need of a big win. Mosley has been a fading fighter since 2004 when he was beaten in back to back fights by Ronald “Winky” Wright. Although Mosley was able to keep winning between 2005 and 2007, he was taking on weaker opposition to get those wins. In November 2007, Mosley stepped it up and was beaten by Miguel Cotto. If he was a young killer then, he would have stopped Cotto but he just looked old in the fight.
In his fight with a past his best Richardo Mayorga in 2008, Mosley was losing the fight until getting a stoppage in the last seconds of the 12th round to win. He didn’t look good. Mosley won his fight after that with a win over Antonio Margarito in January 2009, but that was the last win that Mosley has registered. Since then, he’s been beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, and picked up a gift draw against Sergio Mora.
There’s nothing young about Mosley, and he can talk all he wants about being young, but that’s not the case for him physically.
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