SHANE MOSLEY: LEGEND OR GOOD FIGHTER?
November 2nd, 2009 By Jarrad Woods
IS MOSLEY AS GOOD AS THE MASSES THINK?
New York, NY- WBO welterweight (147 lbs) champ “Sugar Shane” Mosley (46-5 39 KOs) has signed to face undefeated WBC champ Andre Berto (25-0 19 Kos) on January 30, 2010 Given the variables involved some may call this as a tossup fight. But is this because one of boxing’s biggest names at 38, is getting older, no longer takes steroids and most likely his best days are in the past? You can bet that’s what Berto’s team is hoping for. What Shane did to Antonio Margarito has made him one to talk about, but has that victory given him more of an inflated status than deserved? What can we say is his biggest accomplishment? Has he truly beaten anyone that would elevate his status to legendary? Or is he just a good fighter who peaked at lightweight (135) and faced the perfect opponent in his last fight?
WAS MARGA-CHEATO TAILOR MADE FOR SHANE?
While some fight analysts believed that Margarito was on fire after destroying Miguel Cotto and looked primed to do the same to Mosley, many were shocked when Mosley “witch” slapped the Mexican before knocking him out. However some like Roger Mayweather accurately predicted that Margarito would “get his ass kicked.” Roger was on target, having accurate insight despite being unaware of the impact or lack thereof concerning Marg’s use od plaster laden hand wraps. The truth Roger was aware of is that Mosley looks great against relatively unskilled brawlers who rely on an aggression rather than defense and ring generalship to win fights. Mosley has a very similar style to these types of fighters but the difference is his speed. Margarito was beyond somewhat slower than Mosley and simply was too predictable to compete with the Pomona, CA native. Mosley spent most of his pro and amateur career beating Hispanic fighters with a similar style and by his own admission, he had Margarito pegged. With that said, I take nothing away from Mosley in making that fight more exciting than most would have believed.
TIME TO QUESTION MOSLEY’S RECORD?
At lightweight (135) before moving up to welterweight Shane was unstoppable, putting up an unblemished record of 38 victories and 35 knockouts until he met the late Vernon Forrest. But looking back at his competition at lightweight, there simply aren’t many big names that pop out. Since that loss to Forest, he has won certainly more than he lost but appears to have become somewhat inconsistent. He’s tacked on a few more losses and his victories haven’t been fantastic or against stellar opponents. Defeating a shot Fernando Vargas (twice) and a faded Ricardo Mayorga certainly didn’t make our mouths water for the next victim. Losing a close decision to the aforementioned Cotto and even outpointing a game Luis Collazo allowed both opponents to walk away with the bigger gains. Collazo is seen as a tough test for any upcoming fighter while Cotto notched another name on his resume.
OTHER THAN BEING UNBEATEN, BERTO AIN’T MUCH
Although Andre Berto is a solid fighter with speed and ability, even as a champion he is not registered as a top tier fighter. Honestly, Berto is reminds me a lot of Jermain Taylor. He’s an athletic fighter with a great record on paper but his fight schedule hasn’t been strong and seems to have a less than granite chin. It seems he’s been guarded and simply has yet to face the tougher competition. This fight is honestly Mosley’s to lose and Berto is the only true beneficiary here. If Berto wins he can earn some respect from doubters. But Mosley will only have added another solid but low impact name to his resume, when his real goals are to add a Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. It’s not that it will hurt Mosley, but it won’t make us think of him as any more of him as a fighter than he is today. The funny thing is, Mosley beating Berto won’t be a surprise here but if Mosley loses it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise either.
TOUGH SPOT FOR MOSLEY HERE
I’m not trying to take anything away from Shane, but as I continue to hear him whine about the fact that no one wants to fight him, we must wonder why? It’s not because he’s the best out there. I don’t think anyone is particularly scared of him. In reality Shane poses a challenge in speed and power but his age, deficiencies when it comes to skill and porous defense, all this makes him less likely to look good against a pure boxer or someone who can match his speed.
SHANE IN AN UNENVIABLE POSITION HERE
Simply put, Shane’s in a difficult spot. If Mosley is able to give Berto the same treatment as Margarito, he might find himself at odds with finding a new opponent because what up and comer will take the risk against the old man? Also, there’s simply not big money with Mosley in the equation or strong interest other than hardcore fans. And if he doesn’t look good versus Berto, he’ll be stuck facing guys like he did leading up to Margarito. As for now, all Shane can do is fight his way to the top. And right now he’s a good fighter, but in the mid of JW, not yet a legend.
Jarrad Woods
mosley vs. williams. Let’s see what shane can do.
Legend.
Excellent article.
JW-
Shane Mosley is rated the number one Welterweight in the world currently. Unfortunately, in this day and age of boxing the best aren’t seeking him out, he’s seeking them out. That’s a problem. Writers contribute to this problem by not calling Mayweather, Cotto, Paquaio to fight this guy, but calling him out the true Champ for whining trying to get a fight with any of the three. The only reason these guys aren’t fighting him is because he is more of risk for all of them and in their eyes the three of them equal more money to fight each other rather than him. I’m kind of confused to why people say Mosley is not a big draw. The Margarito fight seemed to extremely well. Mosley has fought everybody and anybody that he should have throughout his career which is more than I could say for Mayweather. If Mosley beats Berto it definitely does add to his legacy especially because he’s unifying the belts. To me the best fight in boxing right now is Mosley vs. Mayweather. I hope Cotto beats Paquaio because he’s the only one that would most likely take on Mosley. I understand why Paquiao isn’t taking on Mosley right now and he hasn’t been fighting Welterweights long enough to criticize him, Cotto has already fought Mosley once so I respect him too andboth of these guys consistently fight the best, but Mayweather makes you ask yourself why isn’t the so called best pound for pound fighter not fighting the number one ranked guy in his own division?
tsk..tsk..tsk..Y’all fools!Margarito is a beatable fighter! What made him special is his granite chin and that is all!Boxing skills nada! He is basically a nobody in boxing if he doesnt have them plaster like handwraps!So stop giving Mosley too much credit cause like I’ve said, Margarito is a beatable fighter without them handwraps!Infact Manny Pacquaio can beat Margarito via KO while singing “Candles in the Wind” in a Karaoke at the same time!
“Marga-cheato”, haha, pretty clever. I suppose the “Sugar” in Shane’s nom de plum is the steroids he injected.
Shane Mosley is one of the best fighters to have ever laced ‘em up.
He is also entertaining to watch.
Don’t forget that he beat Oscar twice when Goldie was still in his prime. I realize that was about the time of BALCO.
Legend.
shane is good but cotto is more better than him thats why he was loss to cotto…rematch should be the givenway….!! shane is good…really
HGH??????????
Aside from a selected few, Mosley is one of the best in the last 20 years.
He fought all the good ones except for Trinidad and Whitaker. The prime welter version of Mosley beats the best welter version of Whitaker as Mosley would have been too strong. At lighweight the best version of Whitaker beats teh best version of Mosley. A younger Mosley beats Cotto 9 of ten times. Moreover, I thought Mosley beat Cotto in their first fight.
Winky was just too big and too strong for an undersize Mosley. The late Vernon Forest just had Mosley numbers just like Ken Norton had Ali’s numbers.
Mosley no doubt is a great fighter. Greater than Oscar, and Trinidad, but not as great as Chavez, Whitaker Floyd, Ricardo Lopez, RJJ or a Bernard Hopkins.
This bugs me to no end. Who is a better home run hitter Aaron or Bonds. Mosely was a cheat and for some reason he seems to get a free walk. He is no different than Margarito. Look at Palmiero in baseball. The guy had over 500 homers and over 3000 hits and yet he won’t even get a sniff at the HOF. Plain and simple, Mosley probably cheated through out most of his career no one seems to even care.
I care big Chuck, I care..
Well said, Big Chuck Shadowski. What irks me more than anything is the cognative dissonance employed by JW and every other Shane Moseley enthusiast out there.
cheater, cheater steroid eater.
the 2 wins against oscar were better than any wins mayweather has on his record not to mention the guys shane has lost to were far better than anyone floyd has faced. this ridiculing shane for calling out the top guys is rediculous. if only the other top fighters had that same attitude. floyd fan has to try and break mosley down anyway they can so they can have an excuse to not fight him because little floyd would get beat down.
Mosely is FAR from being a legend. He is a competent fighter who would not have cracked the top 10 in boxing’s heyday. He also seems to be a really good guy.
It is odd to me the way accolades are thrown around these days. The word “great” is attached to almost everyone and now we have “legend”. Calling someone who fights with big fat 10 ounce gloves in 12 round championship fights a legend is just wrong. Any fighter in the top 10 welterweights in the 40’s and 50’s would have beaten Shane and PBF to for that matter.
I mean no disrespect to todays fighters. Modern boxing is what it is but it does not make for legends. Maybe legends in their own mind in the case of PBF.
I don’t get the point of this article. It’s like it’s criticizing Shane for being the tough, strong, fearless fighter that he is. All the article does is criticize everything Shane has done for the past few years including getting old. What’s the point of that? The guy criticizes Shane for knowing how to beat Mexican fighters and then later criticizes Shane because he thinks he won’t look good against a pure boxer. He then criticizes Shane for fighting Berto and in the very next paragraph says Shane is whinning because nobody wants to fight him! Well duh, that’s the reason he has to fight Berto genius. Also he brings up Roger Mayweather, one of the only people who picked Shane Mosley to beat Margarito, yet somehow, now, all of a sudden Margarito was tailor made for Shane. Then he tries to say Shane isn’t that good and nobody is afraid of him yet supposedly if he beats up Berto nobody would want to risk fighting him then even though Berto is supposed to be a bum according to him. This whole article is full of bias. I mean who is this guy some Floyd fan or what?
Let me explain something to you Mr Woods, you can nit pick almost any fighter in histories resume’ the way you just did to Shane’s. Trust me I’ve seen it done on many a message board. And next time you want to make an article that attempts to tear down a great fighter’s status do us all a favor and at least make a point. At least one, because through this whole article all I seemed to read was opinioniated assumptions and a bunch of bias.
Mr ‘Lb 4 Lb’ check the headline of the article. That’s the point seeing you missed it.
Shane 46-5,39Ko’s not only entered with a prestigious amateur career(below)
Amateur Record: 250-16
1989 United States Amateur champion at lightweight (132 lbs)
1989 World Junior Championships Silver Medalist in San Juan (PUR) (132 lbs)
1990 United States Amateur champion at lightweight (132 lbs)
1990 Goodwill Games Bronze Medalist in Seattle (USA) (132lbs)
1992 United States Amateur Champion at light welterweight (139 lbs)
Competed in the 1992 Olympic Trials, but lost a decision in the semi-finals against Vernon Forrest.
But went on to win five world titles beating Oscar DeLahoya twice, Antonio Margarito (avoide by Mayweather)has never avoided anyone with his only loses stepping up to fight Winky Wright and Vernon Forest twice and a very tight loss to Miguel Cotto in his home away from home Madison Square Garden.
You do the math!!!!
OOh okay now I got it. The title led me to think we’d get a balanced argument of whether Shane was a legend or not. Instead we got a slanted negative painting of him confirming he wasn’t. My bad, should have caught that the first time.
Hall of Famer.
Highly skilled.
Entertaining and in alot of good fights.
Well, if you’re going to critcize Mosely for steroids, then you also have to criticize Roy Jones, James Toney, Evander Holyfield, Klitschko, etc.
Steroids do allow you to put on muscle mass, but it really hasn’t been proven to help a boxer box. Sure you can lift more. That type of strength doesn’t necessarily help you knock somebody out. I’ve heard it hinders endurance. Not defending Mosely, but exactly what did it do for him, other than increase his weight?
What about Tyson?
They didn’t help Fernando Vargas much, either. People seem to be picking and choosing who they want to criticize. Mayweather seems to be using it as an excuse to not fight Mosely. There doesn’t seem to be any proof that Mosely has used them since the second De La Hoya fight.
LEGEND
Legend !!!! easy one there…This topic irks me man…Shane did what Floyd did 7 yrs. earlier and he did it better…! He is one of the few fighters that is willing to fight whoever wants a smack down unlike Floyd who avoids everybody but small guys…RESPECT THAT YA’ll!!Losing to guys like the late Forrest and then Wright is nothing to b ashamed of, really man everyone avoided those boys including Delahoya and we know Delahoya fights everyone and guess what ? He avoided them what does that tell u about Shane? That means Shane wants to test himself againts the best around again unlike Floyd…Right now Floyd is a hot topic but really look back and really think about what he has done!! other than Castillo and the late Corrales what has he done other than duck every threat there is from 140 to 147 man..! While Shane fought evreryone including guys Floyd is scared of…Floyd claim to fame is an old oscar that he barely beat then Hatton and now FEATHER W8 MARQUEZ …BOTTOM LINE IS SHANE IS A LEGEND AND HE SHOULD HAVE A STATUE OUTSIDE OF STAPLES CENTER NOT OSCAR…
Shane has had a good career, and has been one of the better fighters at 135-147 lbs. for many years, but a LEGEND!! No way! Can you speak of him in the same breath as Alexis Arguello, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler….Shane Mosley?? Just doesn’t sound right to me. No one can question his heart, willingness to fight the best, etc., but he’s had not one “legendary” fight to speak of. Can anyone really remember his fights with Oscar, his best wins? Tainted with the BALCO scandal, too. His wins against Mayorga, Vargas (2),Margarito, and Collazo amount to nothing historically. He only beat Oscar, whose questionable as a LEGEND himself. Legendary money maker, yes, but fighter? We are talking legendary in the HISTORY of boxing!!!! Shane Mosely?! Please!!! At 135 he looked like he had the potential to be a legend, but it just didn’t pan out. Comparing him to Mayweather doesn’t make him a legend either. PBF ain’t no legend, and called Mosley out years ago, but Shane wanted a vacation. PBF haters always forget about that. Hell, Shane was considered done after the Winky Wright fights, and he beats Margarito, and becomes legendary?
As for the steroids, Pedro asked about Mosley, not RJJ, Toney, Evander, etc. I’m sure the “roids” will come up in the discussions of their careers too. Not taking nothing away from Shanes exceptional career, I like the guy, but a legend? I say no.
He’s had a great career, but does anybody really think he could have beaten Aaron Pryor? Roberto Duran? Leonard? Hearns? (Floyd would have lost against these guys, too).