by James Slater – Now that it’s clear his efforts at landing a mega-fight with reigning pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao have led to nought (for now at least), WBA welterweight ruler and future Hall of Famer “Sugar” Shane Mosley is looking like facing his WBC counterpart in a currently star studded 147-pound division, Andre Berto.
Not having fought since his sensational stoppage of the teak-tough Antonio Margarito back in January (a win some have said is the best and most ruthless performance of “Sugar’s” entire welterweight career), Mosley needs to get a fight on quickly if he’s to avoid going off the boil. And though a fight with the Filipino superstar would have been great for all concerned, the paying fans especially, a Mosley-Berto partial unification of the welterweight titles isn’t too bad at all as a plan-B..
According to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, in talking to Ring magazine’s web site, the fight is being worked on right now, with HBO interested in showing the contest.
“We’ll be crunching the numbers and presenting them to Shane in the coming days,” Schaefer told Ring on line. “Shane is the type of fighter who wants to meet the biggest fighters out there. That’s what really gets him motivated, the mega-event. That’s what he lives for. I’m not saying Berto isn’t a big event; it absolutely is. It’s a title-unification fight. We just want to make the right decision, to make sure the money is right.”
So far, no working date or venue has been put out, but Las Vegas and Los Angeles look favourites to play host to the interesting fight.
Berto, much younger than Mosley at age 25 (26 in September) to “Sugar’s” 37 (38 in September – the two men actually share the same birthday of Sept. 7th), is also unbeaten at 25-0(19). However, this aside, Mosley will surely be the favourite to win in the eyes of most. Berto, who has good wins to his name over guys like Luis Collazo and Juan Urango, has never faced anyone remotely like the gifted Mosley.
A good boxer with excellent speed, the WBC boss will, for the first time, be in with a fighter who is faster than him AND who can hit harder than him. So how can Berto possibly win? It is possible Mosley, who struggled with Ricardo Mayorga up at 154-pounds before going on to smash “The Tijuana Tornado” back down at 147, could begin to age at any given time; why not against Berto?
Hugely ambitious and almost certainly relishing the idea of being tested to the limit by as formidable a Mosley as possible, Berto just might wind up getting lucky if his ageing rival’s well does turn out to have dried some come fight night. This is the risk Mosley takes every time he fights on at the age of 38; as great as he is he cannot beat Father Time forever.
But then, Shane Mosley has always been willing to take risks. That’s what makes him such a popular fighter. Mosley-Berto is definitely one to look forward to.