Left Out In the Cold

For Shane Mosley, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Fresh off of his win over Antonio Margarito back in January, the sky seemed the limit. Mosley had just beat the man who many expected to be too much for him. Mosley not only beat Margarito that night, he dominated him. After the fight, names such as Cotto, Mayweather, and Pacquiao were all thrown in as possible opponents for Mosley.

Six months later, and Mosley is still without an opponent for his next fight. Mosley has tried and failed to land the big fights, even going so far as to hire a PR firm and release and endless stream of press releases. He has agreed to give Pacquaio a 60 percent purse split to make that fight happen.

He has also announced he will go as low as 143 lbs. to secure the fight as well. Despite all this, Bob Arum has shown little if any interest in putting Pacquaio in with Mosley. Now that Pacquaio has signed on to face Cotto later this year, Mosley would have to wait at least until next spring to get a crack at either guy.

As for Mayweather, he has all but dismissed any potential fight with Mosley. In separate interviews he has called Mosley a cheater, old man, and not a marketable fighter. Mayweather has also claimed Mosley ducked him during the late nineties, when both were up and coming prospects.

Mayweather’s next fight will be against Juan Manuel Marquez, on September 19th. With a win in that bout, Mayweather appears to be angling himself for a potential clash with Pacquiao, should Pacquiao defeat Cotto. At best, Mosley’s earliest chance of landing a Mayweather fight would be next summer.

At this juncture it seems he will have to look to fighters not named Pacquaio or Mayweather if he is going to fight again this year. Paul Williams is a name being thrown around, but that shouldn’t be Mosley’s first choice. The tall, lanky southpaw would likely give Mosley more fight than he bargained for at age 37. Williams also might be unavailable, as he is in negotiations with several other fighters, including Kelly Pavlik and Sergei Dzindziruk.

A good choice to bide his time would be young Andre Berto. Mosley should be a favorite in that bout, as he has the hand speed to match Berto, and far more experience. Berto is largely untested, and has fought mostly smaller fighters moving up. According to Steve Kim at Maxboxing, Berto has been offered $750,000 to fight Mosley, but may turn it down.

The last glimmer of hope for a name opponent for Mosley seems to be Kermit Cintron. A tall, lanky puncher, Cintron is coming off of a win over junior middleweight prospect Alfredo Angulo. Cintron has apparently agreed to the $750,000 offer Berto was given, and will even drop back down to welterweight for this fight.

For Mosley, inactivity is not a good thing. At 37, he can ill afford to sit on the shelf and watch the Pacquaio/Mayweather drama sort itself out. He needs to stay busy in the interim, and stop the press releases…..for now. A win over Cintron would be a good, but not great win for Mosley. He could take the rest of the year off, and ramp up his PR campaign early next year for one of the big names.

After all, what ending could be better than wrapping up a Hall of Fame career by beating another Hall of Fame bound fighter? For Mosley, Father Time will have to wait just a little while longer as he chases history.

Source: http://insidefights.com/2009/07/25/left-out-in-the-cold/