By Jason Kim: After a string of less than interesting bouts since winning the WBC junior middleweight title last year in March, undefeated Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) faces what could be a tough fight for him against Shane Mosley (47-7-1, 39 KO’s) on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Up until this point, Alvarez has been mostly put in with contenders, both young and old, and former champions that long in the tooth. You can kind of add Mosley to that category given that he’s approaching his 41st birthday and hasn’t won a fight in three years. However, he’s ranked incredibly high at #3 by the World Boxing Council, and he may have enough left in the tank to give Alvarez a lot of trouble if he comes into the fight without any injuries that he’s keeping secret about like in his last bout against Manny Pacquiao a year ago in May.
If Mosley’s legs are in good shape, he’ll be more than a handful for Alvarez because he still has much better hand speed than him and punches almost as hard. Alvarez obviously is a bigger puncher, but not by enough to where it makes much of a difference. What this fight will really come down to is whether Mosley can still fight hard for three minutes of every round for 12 round full rounds.
That’s where I have my doubts. He seems to be unable to pull the trigger on his shots like he used despite still having fast hands, and he certainly doesn’t fight really hard for 12 rounds like he did in the past. It just seems like Mosley has lost something in the stamina department to where no amount of training can get it back. If he pushes himself hard, he seems to gas out and stay tired for the full 12 rounds. A fighter that can’t get a second wind is someone that probably needs to find another line of work.
Alvarez will take the fight to Mosley from the start of the bout and look to wear down the old warrior. Although Mosley is talking being a still young fighter, he’s clearly as old as the hills. He’s probably going to look to run and do things like holding in order to get rest breaks or to keep Alvarez off of him. He can’t stand and trade for a long period without tiring. Mosley’s best chance is if he just unloads with everything in the first couple of rounds the same way Jose Miguel Cotto did in his fight with Alvarez. Cotto had Alvarez badly hurt in the 1st round. However, he wasn’t able to finish him off and he ended up getting worn down and stopped by him.
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