Former WBC welterweight champion “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather and current WBC welterweight super titlist “Sugar” Shane Mosley are reportedly in negotiations to fight May 1 or May 8.
Mosley was scheduled to battle Andre “The Beast” Berto on January 30.
Sadly, Berto (26-0, 19 KOs), a proud Haitian-American who represented Haiti at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, was forced to cancel his matchup with Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) after the Caribbean country was leveled by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake last week.
As a result of Berto’s understandable decision, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer publicly revealed that he is working feverishly to finalize an agreement between Mosley and Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) for this spring.
“I’ve had conversations with Team Mayweather, and I’ll be working in the coming hours and days toward a way that we can get this fight done,” said Schaefer. “The fact is, in the sport of boxing, you have maybe two or three true Super Fights, and this is one of those two Super Fights – two Americans at the height of the sport’s pound-for-pound list.”
Schaefer continued to marvel at the possibility of a Mayweather, 32, versus Mosley, 38, showdown.
“It would be a throw-back fight to the days when you had ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard against Thomas Hearns,” said Schaefer. “This is truly at that level – an event and a fight which will truly capture not just the boxing fans, but the general public. And I think that all of us involved in the sport of boxing feel that it’s the medicine that is needed.”
The “medicine” that “the sport of boxing” needed was a contest pitting Mayweather against Ring Magazine’s number one pound-for-pound boxer, Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs).
A Pacquiao-Mayweather bout was tentatively slated for March 13.
However, the matchup pathetically disintegrated when the two asinine camps could not agree upon a drug testing protocol for the fight.
“I know Floyd is the best,” said Mayweather’s father, Floyd Sr. “But when your opponent uses something illegal, even the best can get hurt.”
Mayweather Sr., a convicted cocaine smuggler and trafficker, offered zero evidence to validate his slanderous allegations that Pacquiao is a longstanding juicehead.
Mayweather’s accusations are further unfounded when one recognizes that Pacquiao has never once tested positive for a banned substance in his career as a professional pugilist.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Pacquiao before his fight with Mayweather was officially scratched. “I am sure he doesn’t want the fight.”
Mosley is a very talented boxer who has fought and defeated many of the elite fighter’s of this generation.
Nevertheless, almost comically considering the recent sequence of events, Mosley admitted to a grand jury in 2003 that he used steroids and was connected to the notorious BALCO scandal.
Specifically, Mosley acknowledged that he used “the cream” and “the clear” and injected himself with a blood oxygen enhancer labeled EPO.
It will be intriguing to see what drug testing methods, if any, Mayweather insists upon for Mosley.
If Mayweather emphatically requests that Mosley undergoes Olympic-style testing, at least the “Pretty Boy” is consistent with his demands.
On the contrary, if Mayweather expresses little concern about the testing procedures for a known abuser of steroids, he will prove that he is indeed a yellow coward who is mortified at the very thought of scrapping Pacquiao.
“Styles make fights,” said Roger “Pit” Perron, 73, a longtime boxing trainer from Brockton who now works with Mike and Rich Cappiello at their gym, Cappiello Brothers Boxing and Training. “Mosley is the one guy that can beat Floyd. Mosley has quick hands, he will press the fight, and he is a legit welterweight who has fought real champions.”
Perron stated his contention that Mosley will actually be a more difficult opponent for Mayweather than Pacquiao would have been.
“Mosley is a tough guy. I think Floyd would have beaten Pacquiao. But, I don’t know if Floyd can take Mosley.”
Famed sportswriter Jimmy Cannon once appropriately referred to boxing as “the red light district of sports” because of its rogue nature.
Fans of boxing simply deserve to see Pacquiao face Mayweather.
Hopefully, one day the two camps will resolve their petty grievances and the fight will finally occur.
In the meantime, a Mayweather versus Mosley contest will suffice.
Mosley will force the action in the ring and Mayweather will inevitably backpedal and avoid “Sugar” at all costs.
Still, expect Mayweather to score handily with periodic flurries and ultimately emerge with a narrow majority decision victory over Mosley.
Mosley battling Mayweather will not be, as Schaefer proclaimed, “’Sugar’ Ray Leonard against Thomas Hearns.”
However, it will be a contest between “two Americans at the height of the sport’s pound-for-pound list” and that’s not a bad matchup for boxing.
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Keywords: Boxing, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley
