By Geoffrey Ciani: As Miguel Cotto prepares to defend his WBA welterweight crown against Alfonso Gomez in what amounts to a tune-up bout in preparation for a defense against Ricardo Mayorga later this year, Shane Mosley is making headlines as he and Zab Judah exchanged words in the lead-up to their showdown in May. Neither Cotto nor Mosley has stepped foot inside the squared circle since their closely contested battle last November, which leaves me wondering why these two men are not having a rematch?
In their first contest, Cotto was awarded a unanimous decision in a bout which clearly could have gone either way. Personally, I thought Mosley did enough down the stretch to eek out a decision, but I had no problem whatsoever with the final tally on the judges’ scorecards. What I do have a problem with is the inexplicable situation at hand, where, not only are these two not having a rematch, but there is nary a word from the boxing community pertaining to such a potential occurrence. Worst of all, it is not as if either Mosley or Cotto is slated for a showdown against pound-for-pound king, Floyd Mayweather Jr. What exactly is going on here?
I have had my suspicions about this ever since I first saw the post-fight interviews. For some reason or another, Mosley took this loss extremely well. Generally speaking, Mosley has always been a class act and a gracious loser. When twice bested by the likes of Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright, Mosly was polite and respectful, accepting the fact that in each instance, he was beaten by the better man. When the decision was read after his contest with Cotto, he was similarly respectful, but the big difference was, this was a much closer fight than any of his previous losses. Why, then, was Shane reluctant to make his case? He did not say that he thought he won, and there was no mention of a rematch—this from a man who insisted on immediate rematches after losses to Forrest and Wright. Something was rotten in Denmark.
Now, we have Mosley preparing for Judah, Cotto taking a tune-up in preparation for Mayorga, and De La Hoya taking a warm-up in preparation for a rematch with Floyd? I ask once again, what the hell is going on here? Am I the only one who finds this exceedingly bizarre? Would it not make more sense if Cotto was facing Mayweather? Would it not also make more sense for Mosley and Cotto to be having a rematch? It seems to me that the wrong fighters are squaring off, here. Hell, even Cotto-De La Hoya and Mosley-Mayweather makes more sense than what we are getting.
Once again, it appears clear to me that De La Hoya is probably calling the shots. Instead of allowing Mayweather to face Mosley or Cotto, De La Hoya apparently wants another crack at him first. This is baffling, for I am hard-pressed to see how De La Hoya will perform any better this time around. Likewise, it is rather peculiar that instead of seeing a rematch between Cotto and Mosley, we are ultimately being prepped for showdowns between Cotto and Mayorga (why?) and Mosley and Judah. Not that the latter two would not make for a couple of entertaining scraps, but it appears there is a more logical direction in which we should be headed.
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geoff@eatthemushroom.com
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