Avanesyan favored to beat Mosley

By Boxing News - 05/25/2016 - Comments

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By Jeff Aranow: 44-year-old Shane Mosley (49-9-1, 41 KOs) is getting a title shot on Saturday night against WBA interim welterweight champion David Avanesyan (21-1-1, 11 KOs) at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Despite having a high ranking at #3 with the World Boxing Association, Mosley is the underdog in this fight. The oddsmakers feel the 27-year-old Avanesyan will have enough to hand Mosley another loss on his record.

It’s not all that surprising though because Mosley has done precious little to deserve his current ranking with the WBA since making his comeback. He’s beaten Patrick Lopez and Ricardo Mayora in his two-fight comeback. Those are not contenders in the sport, and it probably isn’t fair at all that the WBA has Mosley ranked ahead of fighters that are fighting at a higher level than Mosley like Errol Spence Jr and Sammy Vargas.

Those guys would probably he heavily favored against Mosley if they were to face him, yet they’re both ranked below Mosley in the WBA’s rankings.

Bavada has Avanesyan favored -170, with Mosley at +140. The fight is seen as a close one by the oddsmakers, but they clearly believe that Avanesyan is the better guy. Avanesyan looks like a decent fighter, but not in the class of Spence. Avanesyan picked up the interim WBA title the easy way in beating 36-year-old Charlie Navarro last November by a 9th round knockout. It’s surprising that the WBA let Avanesyan get their interim title so easily by beating a Navarro rather than someone with a chance of beating him like Spence.

Mosley is going to need to try and take charge of the fight early against Avanesyan on Saturday night, because if he lags and lets the Russian fighter off to a good start, he could wind up losing. Mosley has been accustomed to having his own way since he started his comeback. Instead of facing top tier contenders, Mosley has beaten Patrick Lopez and Mayorga. Those guys didn’t have the talent to do anything with Mosley.

It’s going to be different for Mosley against Avanesyan because this guy has the talent to give Mosley all kinds of problems. Avanesyan isn’t a big puncher, but he’s got enough power to do a job on him. The activity rate from Avanesyan may be enough for him to wear down Mosley and create a stoppage of some kind.

Mosley was stopped by Anthony Mundine in 2013 when his back tightened up on him. However, Mosley was on his way to losing that fight anyway. Mosley’s back injury probably saved him from getting stopped outright by Mundine. Avanesyan is even more difficult than Mundine, and it doesn’t look good for Mosley in this fight. He’s three years older than he was when he lost to Mundine, and he’s definitely not a better fighter than he was back then. Mosley looked finished in 2013. His skills have likely eroded even more since then.