Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner | Scott Heritage
The recent announcement that Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley will meet in the ring on May 1st has the boxing world in a spin.
For the first time in a long while, Mayweather is fighting someone who has a good chance of beating him, and not someone much smaller or who he matches up especially well with.
Sure Mosley is old and probably not the fighter he was a few years ago. Also he's coming off a long layoff since beating Antonio Margarito last January. (In actual fact, Margarito, who was banned for one year after that fight will actually fight again before Mosley does, go figure). But records don't lie, and Mosley is one of the most accomplished welterweights out there, and an impressive scalp for anyone to add to their record.
Certainly by landing this fight Mayweather can claim that he has the bigger opponent for his next fight than Manny Pacquiao, his chief rival and pound for pound great. Floyd's claim to being the top fighter in the division was hanging by a thread, but a win over Mosley will at least keep him in the running against the runaway Filipino freight train that is Pacquiao.
The fight will also set the stage for one of the biggest pay per view battles in recent history, with the winner having extra leverage should the pair decide to try to hammer out an agreement to fight again. As clear as it can be, this fight represents the latest in the Golden Boy vs. Top Rank war that has been happening on and off for years. With this in mind I decided to ask a few local fight fans what they made of the situation, and which fight they took to be the more impressive:
David Sharma, Pittsburgh PA: "Pacquiao is the bigger fighter period. Mayweather needs to put up against Pacquiao or retire".
While Pacquiao might be the slightly bigger of the two Mayweather isn't far behind, and I have a feeling that the sales will be very close between the two events. Whoever sells more will undoubtedly have a little extra leverage at the negotiating table, but probably not enough to make a lot of difference to the fight terms. As for Mayweather retiring, after he gets his bank balance back the way he likes it, I'm sure he will be glad to leave all the critics behind him.
Brian Smith, Greensburg PA:"Clottey, who's Clottey? Mosley is the bigger fight"
While Clottey is a decent name, I have to agree that Mosley is a much bigger fight i terms of rankings and relevance. Taking a glance at Clottey's record, he looks to be something of a gatekeeper at welterweight, with the biggest names on his record all having beaten him. Clottey is a tough test, and has never been stopped, but he has enough holes in his game to keep him firmly outside of the title picture. Mosley on the other hand has the pedigree, record and title that Clottey doesn't.
Ben Jones, Pittsburgh PA: "I predict... Pacquiao Clottey does 800 thousand buys and Mayweather does 1.4 million, Pacquiao can't hype like Mayweather can"
While the numbers look a little off to me, the spirit of the predictions are probably spot on. The only thing that Pacquiao lacks in terms of being a big draw is having a mouth to match his fists. It might be the case that humble fighters are more respected, but no doubt about it, trash talkers have always historically tended to sell more fights.
Which is the bigger fight? Well the opinions were fairly divided about this one, but overall the slight edge went to Mayweather and Mosley, largely because of the fact that Mosley was a lot more well known and has the better record. Which will actually end up being the biggest we will have to wait and see.
Source: Examiner.com
