02.28.06 – By Tim Foley: In the aftermath of what was a pretty entertaining scrap between ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley and ‘Ferocious’ Fernando Vargas, I am left pondering where both fighters go from here. This is especially evident with the victor, Shane Mosley. His reflexes are still in tact, blazing handspeed, good foot and head movement, but I question if he still has any pop left in those formerly thunderous mitts.
In the first two or three rounds of the bout, Mosley landed quick combinations that left Vargas off-guard and defenseless. However, despite throwing hard right hands, he was never able to make Vargas flinch or move him back. After Fernando’s eye was swollen shut, Shane was able to punish him with right hands that Vargas could not see, nor defend. Despite not seeing them, he was able to take all of those punches without even moving. This is the same Fernando Vargas who was practically beheaded by Tito Trinidad back in 2000. Shane’s punches seemed like the type of power punches thrown by Wayne McCullough, not the same Shane who was still knocking out guys at welterweight such as Wilfredo Rivera and Antonio Diaz.
Does Shane still have any power left? This writer believes he does not have enough to make any of the elite welterweights tremble. With the way Fernando Vargas moved Shane back in the middle rounds, I question if Shane can even hold up the amount of pressure a guy like Antonio Margarito could put on him. Keep in mind, Margarito is one of the better punchers in the welterweight division (which is why Shane doesn’t mention him for his next fight). But one guy Shane is calling out, Floyd Mayweather Jr., would pick him apart. Even though Shane is a guy who could come close to matching Mayweather’s blazing speed, I wonder if he even has as much power at welterweight as Floyd does. When he can’t finish off guys like David Estrada or Jose Luis Cruz, how can he even think about being able to punish a guy like Mayweather? At least Mayweather put a hurting on Sharmba Mitchell to prove he has some pop at welterweight.
So despite the win, which looks good on his resume, where does he go from here? He certainly won’t be returning to junior middleweight, unless a huge payday falls out of the sky for him. We will be seeing him at welterweight most likely, but can he accomplish anything of note? Unfortunately, it looks as unlikely as a Shane Mosley one-punch knockout.