Watch Mayweather vs Mosley scuffle (video and photos)

Mayweather vs Mosley

b o x i n g

Floyd Mayweather, Jr and Shane Mosley appeared agitated as both men faced each other on stage during a New York press conference on Tuesday. Both fighters had a similar near-altercation during their unceremonious exchange - shown on HBO - last September 19th in the middle of the ring in Las Vegas, after Mayweather defeated Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez.

The scuffle was anticipated, as Mayweather typically likes to agitate his opponents, and he did the same when he faced Mexican-American Oscar de la Hoya and Britain's Ricky Hatton.

Was the scuffle staged? Sure, all parties involved would enjoy more pay-per-view (PPV) revenue - in theory. But it appears that Mayweather and Mosley do despise each other.

Like Hatton, Mosley did not want any part of Mayweather's antics - the latter has been going around the country on network television implying that rival and Filipino Manny Pacquiao has been using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

On Tuesday, Mayweather and Mosley talked trash for a few seconds until blows were almost exchanged two months before their May 1st welterweight title bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A crowd of several thousand inside the Nokia Theater saw a preview of an highly anticipated bout.
Three-City Tour >

Both pound-for-pound fighters will continue their three-city publicity tour. Mosley indicated that he would like to take on Philippine boxer and current pound-for-pound (p4p) king Manny Pacquiao should he emerge victorious against the former p4p champ in Mayweather. Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach recently indicated that his ward's March 13th fight against Ghanaian Joshua Clottey may be his last bout.

After lengthy introductions, the unbeaten Mayweather and the welterweight champion Mosley sauntered to the middle of the stage and stood face to face. Jawing turned to pointing, then pointing turned to shoving.

During the lively press con, Mayweather stated:

The thing is this: He may be the champ, but we all know belts don't do nothing but collect dust. I'm in the check-cashing business, baby.

This fight should be the biggest in the sport for 2010 not involving Manny Pacquiao. Mosley had been pursuing a bout with Mayweather for years. His effort at getting a showdown gained traction when Mosley crashed a post-fight interview after Mayweather defeated Juan Manuel Marquez last September.

Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions predicted the fight will do three million pay-per-views (PPV), which would shatter the record set by Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. That is likely to be an overly-optimistic assessment given the state of the economy. Anything over 1.5 million PPVs would probably make both sides very happy.

Mayweather has gone on multiple high profile interviews blaming Pacquiao for the fallout in negotiations, claiming that the Filipino refused to take a $25 million Olympic-style drug test.

Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), on the other hand, was supposed to face Andre Berto in a unification fight in January, but Berto's family was severely impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, forcing him to back out.

Said Mosley:

It's been a long time since I got a chance to show the world that I'm the best fighter, and that's all that I really want, to be the best. I'm going to take my hat off to Mayweather, because I didn't think I was ever going to get a fight from any of these top fighters.

Both fighters will undergo random blood testing. Mosley has acknowledged unintentionally using steroids before defeating De La Hoya in 2003. The California native claims it was a mistake made by a strength coach connected to the BALCO lab, and insisted again Tuesday that he is clean.

According to Golden Boy, about 14,000 tickets were snatched up Tuesday in the first 15 minutes they were on sale. The publicity tour moves to Washington, D.C. then Los Angeles.

Oscar de la Hoya and Schaefer both predicted a victory for Mosley. Said De la Hoya:

I've fought both fighters and I already know what's going to happen. I already know there's going to be a knockout, I already know, and it ain't going to be 'pretty.'

Source: Examiner.com