By Chris Williams: A win for 39-year-old Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KO’s) against highly hyped Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KO’s) would be a big shot in the arm for boxing, because it would interrupt temporarily the string of fights in which Pacquiao is matched against lesser fighters over and over again recently. It would also give boxing fans a chance to see an interesting fight involving Pacquiao for a change instead of watching him whip on beaten up Top Rank fighters like Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito.

A win over Pacquiao on may 7th would likely mean that Pacquiao will continue in the same pattern by fighting rematches with these same fighters or possibly going after some of the other fighters in the Top Rank stable like Yuri Foreman.

Mosley can still punch well, as long as you keep the fight short and sweet at around three rounds. If the fight goes beyond the third round, Mosley is in danger of gassing out and going into a permanent state of lock-up. I kind of doubt that Mosley will be finding the fountain of youth before May 7th, but there is a small chance. If Mosley comes out of the blocks really hard, he could overpower and surprise the smaller Pacquiao. The Filipino star is used to coming out fast against painfully slow fighters like Margarito or small and beat up fighters like Cotto and Clottey and then taking advantage of them by pounding them into submission.

However, if Mosley jumps all over Pacquiao in the first three rounds, he could stop him if he lands a big body shot. As we saw in the Margarito fight and in other fights, Pacquiao doesn’t take body shots nearly as good as he does head shots. That’s where Mosley needs to direct his punches if he wants to get a quick knockout before he tires out.