17.03.04 – By Janne Romppainen – After seeing Sugar Shane Mosley losing a clear-cut decision to Ronald “Winky” Wright in their light-middleweight unification fight on last Saturday, one couldn’t help but wonder. There was something uncharacteristic with the familiar looking figure named Mosley. Mosley did not lose to a bad fighter by any means, quite the opposite. Wright has been one of the better boxers of the whole game for long and he has been unfairly underrated because of his often non-crowd-pleasing style. But still, even though Mosley still is a world-class beater and in his last fight he had outpointed a megastar Oscar De La Hoya, the difference between the Mosley we saw now and the one that overcame De La Hoya four years ago as a welterweight is considerable. Even though he still is only 32 years of age, he seemed to be a fighter on a steady decline.
Mosley rose to fame as a lightweight. At first he wasn’t a big star outside the ring, but inside it he made boxing experts and aficionados cheer. He demonstrated hand-speed that is rarely seen in any weight-class, in that department he was even compared to the likes of Meldrick Taylor and Hector Camacho. He had panther-like reflexes that kept him out of trouble despite his aggressive, pleasing style. His punching power was brutal, out of his 32 lightweight opponents he stopped 30 and especially his body shots took the wind out of anybody who stood in front of him. He also had an excellent stamina that enabled him to keep going on high pace round after round and his chin held up for the few punches he had to take. There simply didn’t seem to be any weakness in him. Even Roy Jones Jr., doing commentary for the television, once said after Mosley’s fight that he seemed like the best lightweight of the history (although he had to add later that “Roberto Duran was up there too”).
When Mosley moved up to the welterweight division to face De La Hoya in the mega-bout of summer 2000 after having trouble with dropping down to 135lbs, everything seemed to be as it had been in the lower weight-class. Mosley survived the bigger man’s aggression and overcame his celebrated foe with his speed and stamina. The boxing media hailed him as the pound-for-pound #1 in the world. He continued with three impressive title defences and everything indicated that he would once retire as a true boxing legend.
Things started to go wrong with him for the first time in the second round of his fight with his Olympic trials conqueror Vernon Forrest in 2002. For the first time Mosley’s usually so slick reflexes let down fatally: Forrest caught him with a huge right cross that changed the fight and after that it was all Forrest. He downed Mosley twice and gave him a bad beating over twelve rounds. That fight could be explained by the fact that Mosley simply had gotten caught early on and never recovered, but his second bout against Forrest six months later proved otherwise. In the rematch Mosley was far from his former self. After a vicious attack in the first 15 seconds of the bout he stayed back and never took the fight on his foe. Mosley ate Forrest’s jab much more easily than had been the case against De La Hoya or any other of his opponents for the matter. He was not pressing the action to close the distance. In the few inside situations Mosley could not let his hands go as before. It seemed like his self-confidence nor his physical attributes were there. Forrest took another decision over him in a slow-paced fight.
After these two incidents Mosley looked for new directions and moved up to the light-middleweight. After warming up with Raul Marquez with a three-round no-contest Mosley clashed horns again with De La Hoya. Mosley won again, but not too impressively. His former blinding combinations had been replaced by single power shots, which, even though they were heavy were not nearly as quick as before. He did not exchange punches like he used to, he did not keep up the common tiring pace and he was easier to hit than before. Against De La Hoya a strong finish saved him the decision, but against Wright it didn’t happen anymore.
Mosley’s career reminds me of the one of another star of the late 1990s, the colourful Englishman Prince Naseem Hamed’s. Even though Hamed’s career never reached the same height as Mosley’s and his star dropped even more quickly, there are plenty of similarities between these two. Mosley’s decline and reasons to it have been like Hamed’s in a smaller scale.
When Hamed first arrived to the knowledge of first the British and then the worldwide boxing fans, he seemed like something really spectacular. Hamed was quick, his reflexes were astonishing, his unique style was crowd-pleasing and first and foremost, his punching power was unbelievable. However, Hamed’s peak was very short one. His downslide begun already after 23 years of age. That was mainly because his whole game had been based on his unnatural talent; reflexes, power and speed, and behind all that he had a considerable lack of basic skill. When his reflexes started to erode (and that is usually the first thing to go, it can happen very early), he was much easier target than he had been. Also his combinations disappeared and he tried to take his opponents out with single bombs. And finally when Marco Antonio Barrera gave him a pummelling for twelve rounds, his confidence fell totally apart. After the Barrera bout, Hamed has been seen in the ring just once and in that fight against Manuel Calvo he was just a pale shadow of the fighter who just a couple of years earlier had electrified crowds everywhere he fought.
The same periods that Hamed went through are visible on Mosley’s record too. There was a short, bright peak followed by a change of style and decline. Like Hamed’s also Mosley’s style was much based on his natural talent. Also Mosley had shortcomings with his defence although they were not that visible. Earlier his reflexes made up for them but that is no more the case. Mosley too lost much of his effectiveness when he grew up in weight and changed from a fierce combination puncher to a one shot at a time –type of a fighter. And the loss of confidence which happened to Mosley after the first Forrest fight was fatal for him too. It was not as bad as Hamed’s since Mosley could fight on the world level afterwards too, but still the effect of it was one of the main reasons he lost his peak. When an “on-top” fighter who has been used to control the pace against his opponents loses his confidence, he loses everything, and that happened with Mosley too.
Despite what has been said earlier it has to be remembered that Mosley’s career at the world level is not over yet. He still has luring and from the spectator’s point of view interesting possibilities to continue his career. Bouts with Fernando Vargas or Ricardo Mayorga would be both highly interesting and also winnable for him and personally I would like to see them since I have always been a Mosley fan. However it seems that he will no more be able to become the dominating force that he once was. To be that again, Mosley would need to completely renew his style of fighting and while he is a talented athlete, at the age of 32 it most probably is too late for him to do that.
Mosley’s, like Hamed’s, career demonstrates the often forgotten fact that especially the developing fighters and their trainers should keep in mind: talent can take you far, even to the top, but to stay there you need to know your basics well. It takes tons of hard work but eventually it pays off.
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