Margarito-Mosley Prognostification, Pt. II
posted by Large
I’m very surprised that the predominant attitude here at the Mas towards my Margs/Mosley part-one piece was along the lines of, ‘ninja please!†Seems as if the great mass of Masians don’t have much of a sweet tooth on this one, with none other than Ryan, our crack prognosticator on all things Margo, calling for Sugar Shane to get stopped in the ninth.
I certainly understand the sentiment. When trying to envision how a fight might go down, I always find it useful to entertain the possibility that each man might at least equal his finest performance and decide which fighter would prevail in that case. For Margarito, of course, that career performance is a fight we are exceedingly familiar with. And to put it plainly, if Margs pulls another Cotto-type night out of his ass, well, Shane Mosley will not be winning the fight, not if he goes into the ring riding a loaded rhinoceros. I think we all agree on that.
As for Mosley, his best outing was the first De La Hoya fight, I suppose, and that is probably what weighs down his chances in my mind more than anything. While Margarito’s greatest moment in the ring occurred six months ago, Shane’s is eight years gone. He did look mighty good against Cotto, mighty good indeed, but even that is over a year ago. And though he finished his most recent fight in style, it’s true that he had problems with Mayorga. To be fair, though, Mayorga will give you some problems, especially at 47, where he is gigantic. The man is awkward and strong and crazy. I get the sense that mixing it up with the Matador is like playing speed chess with someone who’s brazen but otherwise has no idea what he’s doing. People like that constantly mess with your rhythm because you’re used to your opponents doing things that make sense and these bold fools do everything wrong. It can take you a while to get the feel of that kind of game, and you can even get behind, despite the fact that you’re an infinitely superior player.
