Sugar Alone
I must say, No Masians, I don't know quite what to make of Sugar Shane Mosley's win over Luis Collazo this past Saturday night. On one hand, I was impressed - Collazo is a top-tier fighter, tough as a Brooklyn bulldog, and Shane dominated him. He didn't get the KO, but due to his speed and wherewithal, Collazo is a very difficult knockout. He did knock Collazo down in the 11th with a short right hook. Backing up, off balance, he saw an opening and caught Luis C. leaning, a beautiful punch, indicative that despite his age and overall wear and tear Mosley still has phenomenal reflexes.
Certainly this fight gives us one reference point among elite boxers right now - Ricky Hatton is not in Sugar Shane's league. I'm not sure that I knew that before this fight, but I do now. In my mind, Hatton/Collazo was a draw, and had it been a 15-round bout, Luis might have won it. Basically, Collazo ruined Hatton's whole plan for conquering America, and meanwhile for Mosley he provided little more than a respectable chess problem, one that Shane solved in about three rounds.
Now Sugar Shane is talking big, calling out the winner of Oscar/Floyd. For myself, I'm only slightly more interested in a third De la Hoya/Mosley fight than I was in Mosley/Vargas II. Oscar and Shane are good friends and business partners now, and they fought twice in their primes. Shane was the better fighter then by a few hairs. End of story. I can't believe the fight would ever get made.
As for Floyd, he himself said it best in a post-bout interview with Lampley - Mosley had his chance with Floyd for years and ducked him, even to the tune of 8 mill after the second Vargas fight. Why he wants him now is a mystery. Floyd is still sticking to his retirement story, although his recent comments about Hatton make it seem like he might be eying an easy payday across the Atlantic. That's a believable scenario - a bout with Shane is not. Provided that Floyd beats Oscar, what would Floyd stand to gain in taking less money to face an arguably more dangerous but far less famous fighter?
So where does that leave Sugar Shane? As far as I can see, it leaves him without a big-name dance partner. Cotto is about the best he could do for a high-profile bout, an interesting fight definitely, and yet something tells me that if Cotto gets past Margarito, he'll have bigger fish to fry than Shane Mosley.
(p.s. - How about that pre-fight piece on Shane and his wife? Jesus... it was like a video documentary of a marital squabble. And Shane, how about sticking up for yourself for chrissake? Yeah she's taking care of the kids, but fuckin-a man, you're going in there and getting your face mashed in and then bringing home 4 mill for it. Tell your harpie of a wife to rub her own feet.)
Certainly this fight gives us one reference point among elite boxers right now - Ricky Hatton is not in Sugar Shane's league. I'm not sure that I knew that before this fight, but I do now. In my mind, Hatton/Collazo was a draw, and had it been a 15-round bout, Luis might have won it. Basically, Collazo ruined Hatton's whole plan for conquering America, and meanwhile for Mosley he provided little more than a respectable chess problem, one that Shane solved in about three rounds.
Now Sugar Shane is talking big, calling out the winner of Oscar/Floyd. For myself, I'm only slightly more interested in a third De la Hoya/Mosley fight than I was in Mosley/Vargas II. Oscar and Shane are good friends and business partners now, and they fought twice in their primes. Shane was the better fighter then by a few hairs. End of story. I can't believe the fight would ever get made.
As for Floyd, he himself said it best in a post-bout interview with Lampley - Mosley had his chance with Floyd for years and ducked him, even to the tune of 8 mill after the second Vargas fight. Why he wants him now is a mystery. Floyd is still sticking to his retirement story, although his recent comments about Hatton make it seem like he might be eying an easy payday across the Atlantic. That's a believable scenario - a bout with Shane is not. Provided that Floyd beats Oscar, what would Floyd stand to gain in taking less money to face an arguably more dangerous but far less famous fighter?
So where does that leave Sugar Shane? As far as I can see, it leaves him without a big-name dance partner. Cotto is about the best he could do for a high-profile bout, an interesting fight definitely, and yet something tells me that if Cotto gets past Margarito, he'll have bigger fish to fry than Shane Mosley.
(p.s. - How about that pre-fight piece on Shane and his wife? Jesus... it was like a video documentary of a marital squabble. And Shane, how about sticking up for yourself for chrissake? Yeah she's taking care of the kids, but fuckin-a man, you're going in there and getting your face mashed in and then bringing home 4 mill for it. Tell your harpie of a wife to rub her own feet.)
15 Comments:
Shane/Oscar III would be the most anti-climactic ending in the history of trilogies.
Agreed. That fight will never get made - same reasoning as Floyd Oscar really. If he beats Floyd, why would Oscar take such a step down in money and overall juice to fight someone who's already beaten him twice? And if he doesn't beat Floyd, who the hell wants to see Oscar/Shane III?
I must point out, however, lame as Oscar/Shane III would be, it would have nothing on lameness compared to Leonard/Duran III.
Hilarious comment on the pre-fight Mosley piece. Along with Lampley's own editorial comments that followed, it's like HBO wanted us to have a specific opinion about that woman. And I for some reason kept thinking about Chris Byrd's wife. The last time Byrd fought on HBO, I literally couldn't watch because of her incessant shrieking in the background. The less we know of the women, the better.
No doubt Floyd is already looking to an easy padyday with a Hatton fight. Floyd is smarter than us all.
It's true PFC - Floyd is running a mighty tight ship.
Any chance of my DC boy Sharmba Mitchell getting another fight worth a damn or is he done?
And when's Paul Williams going to get his fight?
I think you are minimizing Shane's magnitude both at the box office and in historical boxing achievement. Mosley is the next toughest fight for Mayweather and the most historically significant, (precluding Winky, he's just too big.) Floyd-Mosley does more PPV than floyd-cotto, or Floyd-Hatton. The real best case if Mayweather gets past DLH is for Mosley and Cotto to fight, and then take on the pretty boy. Oscar is sort of stuck either way, I imagine his last fight, win or lose, will be against Tito, who'll unretire for the millions.
Jin Mosley is the biggest f'ing bitch in the sport. She almost got into it with Vargas's old lady at the presser after their first fight with her ghetto-ass mouth. It's a real problem in boxing. A lot of these wives with nothing better to do are suddenly becoming their hubby's "managers". They really don't know shit about the sport (especially the business end) and they convince their punchy hubbies, since they have nothing better to do than nag them, to allow them to "manage" so that they can keep the money "in the family". Horrible trend - not good for the fighters or the sport.
Anon - Mosley/Floyd is better fight that Hatton/Floyd, but not a bigger fight necessarily, especially if it's in the UK. Cotto is on his way up, and he does stand to gain from fighting Shane, but something tells me he'll want to bypass him. Shane is getting into Winky territory - he's still too good, and yet he's not a huge enough of a box office draw for someone like Floyd to risk fighting him. I'm sure Floyd would much rather fight Hatton, a fight he knows he'll win and which we'll be like the fucking FA cup final in England.
Kurt - yeah man, Jin Mosley seems like a bad scene. I couldn't believe how much it seems like she puts the beatdown on Shane. Shane is a nice dude too, soft-spoken, easygoing. Shame for Shane Mosley.
The Hatton fight would be huge if it took place in England, but Floyd would be insane to take the fight there. You saw what happened to Tzyu, if that fight had been in America it would be a different result. And as far as Floyd fighting Hatton in America, that is barely PPV worthy here, and Hatton wouldn't share the UK money. Basically, I don't think a Hatton fight happens until they know they've run out of options with him, and we're not close to there yet.
And again, I think you underestimate Mosley's popularity, particularly on the West coast. He's had what? 15 HBO fights already. He's got a built in fanbase.
You may be right about Cotto though. Arum's relationship with Golden Boy promotions and Mayweather personally may preclude either of those fights from happening.
I don't know, I think I'm just trying to convince myself Mosley-Mayweather will happen because I think it's the best of all those possible fights, and the one that is most pressing considering Shane's age.
cheers
Anon, trust me, I would LIKE to see Floyd fight Shane. And let us not forget, Shane had the chance, and 8 million reasons to do it. I genuinely think that Shane would give Floyd a better fight than Oscar would. And I know Shane is still a big name - obviously he was half of what made those otherwise meaningless Vargas fights a big deal. But still, after Floyd beats Oscar he will be the Biggest Name. I can't see why he would float all his retirement talk to take a step down to Shane, a potentially more dangerous fight. Floyd guards that zero in his loss column with his life.
I think Floyd needs to can all of the retirement talk. Even if he does "retire" - there's no way he stays retired. He'll be about as retired as Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Jordan, Roger Clemens and Jay-Z were when they first announced it. How can he not stay around and fight Cotto, Hatton and Mosley - three guys he should beat - and make a ton of money doing it. He's stupid but he's not crazy.
I wonder if Floyd would beat Cotto. He's the one guy I have my doubts about. Motherfucker's got some serious pop in both hands, and he's fast enough to catch Floyd here and there. At this point, it's hard to imagine anyone beating Floyd honestly, but if someone was going to do it, Cotto would have my money.
Large,
If Cotto keeps improving and looking as good as he did against Carlos Quintana, who I thought had a shot at beating him, then he may be the guy who gives Floyd the toughest fight. No one is untouchable and truth be told, I had Judah winning 3 of the first 4 rounds against Floyd and also winning the last two. I had it 7-5 Floyd. He's beatable but if I had to pick the winner of him against any of Oscar, Shane, Cotto or Hatton - I'd still pick Floyd.
I'm with you Kurt - Cotto is a potential problem for Floyd. Zab - I don't know. Zab was definitely winning early, but as they were getting close to the melee, I was starting to think Floyd was going to knock Zab out. Afterwards, he clearly just coasted to the decision. For me, I was impressed at how easily Floyd figured him out.
Basically, I can't imagine betting against the guy against anyone right now. Shit, I'd probably take him to beat Jermain.
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