Mayweather vs Mosley
April 29th, 2010 By John Signorella
“SUPER FIGHT” BOXING RETURNS!
Millions around the world will be in anticipation of a memorable battle when pugilist genius legends and future hall of fame inductees Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (40-0, 25 KOs) and “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) wage war for top “Pound for Pound” supremacy in a welterweight (147) showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV, Saturday at 9 PM ET, live on HBO PPV.
LOVE’ EM OR HATE’ EM, NOBODY’S BEATEN FLOYD
Before his first true test at top level competition against former champion Diego Corrales, Mayweather emerged on the boxing scene destroying his first 24 foes with 18 wins by way of flashy knockout. During his dismantling of the warrior spirited scrapper Corrales (W TKO 10), Mayweather commanded the show and demonstrated a virtuoso of brilliant artistic assault. Floyd then went on to easily defend his title two more times before earning a controversial points decision victory in a “life and death” struggle to the finish against veteran brawler Jose Luis Castillo. Immediately thereafter, the boxing public demanded a rematch and Mayweather met and dominated Castillo eight months later (W UD 12). Over his next nine bouts, Mayweather took on formidable opposition, highlighted by a knockout win over gladiator fan favorite Arturo Gatti (W TKO 6). Because of the ease in which Mayweather blasted out his seemingly over matched adversaries, outcry from the boxing world ensued for Mayweather to step up and face a more dangerous and bigger fighter, which brought life to one of the richest fights in the history of the sport. In an intriguing bout on paper, Oscar De La Hoya accepted Floyd’s challenge. The fight failed to live up to expectation, and saw Mayweather win a close boxing exhibition against a seemingly faded once great champion (W SD 12). In the aftermath of the Oscar encounter, Mayweather pursued one of boxing’s biggest attractions Ricky Hatton for a mega fight. In a “back and forth” closely contested bout, Mayweather nailed an overly aggressive Ricky Hatton with a perfectly timed “check hook” which handed Hatton his first defeat and knockout loss (W TKO 10). After a brief retirement, Mayweather commendably came out of a two-year hibernation to easily outpoint one of the sports best competitors; Juan Manuel Marquez.
CLOSER LOOK AT “MONEY”
Mayweather brings an enormous amount of attributes to the dance. Floyd possesses exceptional hand and foot speed, accompanied by superb youthful reflexes and tremendous defensive movement. Mayweather’s from a family of decorated fighters and from this has obtained a proven brilliant boxing IQ which has garnered him consideration to one of the best fighters to ever step into a boxing ring.
MOSLEY’S ROAD TO BECOMING SUGAR SWEET
Shane Mosley exploded on the scene recording an outstanding perfect 34 victories with 32 knockouts before facing Oscar De La Hoya. In a career defining fight for Mosley, he and De La Hoya fought at an excruciatingly violent pace, and typified their act of madness with a memorable 12th round of reckless abandonment to the finish. Mosley proved to be the better man, winning a split decision handing Oscar his first true defeat. In the wake of his newly found super-stardom, Mosley successfully defended his titles three times before meeting a prime and hungry Vernon Forrest. Forrest shockingly handled the smaller Mosley with ease and managed to send him to the canvas twice in round two. The courageous Mosley was able to get up and fight valiantly to the finish. Losing the bout on all scorecards, Mosley won the admiration of fight fans world wide. Six months later, Mosley and Forrest would do it again, and a better version of Mosley surfaced on that night, however the result would read the same (L UD 12). Being the competitive enforcer that he his, Mosley regrouped and returned to earn a pair of wins, most notably against old rival Oscar De la Hoya (W UD 12), but in postmortem, Shane would then go on to be upset in a couple of scraps against defensive wizard Winky Wright (L UD 12, twice). Removed from the aforementioned setbacks to Wright, again, Shane would bounce back, and mark the return of the Mosley of old by scoring two consecutive back-to-back TKO wins over former belt holder Fernando Vargas (W TKO 10, W TKO 6). After dispatching of Vargas, and winning his next fight, Shane went onto face Miguel Cotto. In a closely contested scintillating war of action fighters, Mosley dropped a unanimous decision to Cotto. Always a good sportsmen, Mosley didn’t make excuses or complain about the unfavorable verdict and fueled another comeback. In his next bout, Shane knocked out madman thug Ricardo Mayorga with a blistering hook in the 12th round. Mosley is coming off his most impressive win in years by pounding the hell out of boxing’s latest feared bad boy Antonio Margarito.
CLOSER LOOK AT “SUGAR”
Mosley brings action, intensity, passion, heart and drama to the show. Despite his advanced age, like his counterpart, Shane has great hand speed, but unlike his opponent, has serious power that can turn your lights out at any moment, especially in the late rounds. In facing some of the best fighters of the past 20 years, Mosley also enjoys a highly keen boxing IQ and has been celebrated as one of the sports best fighters for the nearly a dozen of years.
SIGNORELLA WANTS TO KNOW: “WHO R U PICKING?”
Signorella’s Pick: Mosley, TKO 10
John Signorella
Source: ringtalk.com
