by Geoffrey Ciani – This week’s 92nd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former three division champion Sugar Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs), who is coming off of a somewhat controversial draw against Sergio Mora (22-1-2, 6 KOs) last weekend. Shane spoke to us about the Mora fight and also discussed his future plans and possibilities in boxing. Here is what he had to say:
On how he feels following his draw against Sergio Mora:
“I feel pretty good. I’m just kind of getting myself back together. I just came off the big fight and the media storm and everything and now it’s back to life, back to reality.”
His views on his performance against Mora:
“Well you know I thought I did alright. I mean I was trying to fight. I was out there, like I said, trying to make the fight. I had a guy in there that didn’t really want to fight and was doing a lot of movement and stuff, maybe trying to steal the fight with just movement. He made it an ugly fight, but that’s all he could do I guess is fight that type of fight.”
On how he feels about the draw decision rendered by the three judges:
“I definitely thought I won the fight. You know I would have loved to have gotten a knockout for the fans and the people. He’s a bigger guy, he has good legs, he was moving pretty good. What do you say?”
On whether he feels Mora was getting tired in the later rounds:
“I think that he started slowing down. He wasn’t moving as fast and he was less mobile and he gave me more opportunities to hit him. That made the fight get more exciting.”
On whether he would be interested in stepping in for Julio Cesar Chavez Junior to face Miguel Cotto in December:
“I’m a fighter. I’m a warrior, so I would probably take that match. It’s in December. Three months from now, I think I can work that out.”
On how much he would like to have a rematch against Cotto:
“Oh, I would love to fight Cotto. I’d go back in the gym and start training and prepare myself.”
On whether he plans to remain at 154 or return to 147 pound division:
“Well Mora’s 160 and he went down to 154 and I went up to 154. So I mean, Miguel Cotto is fighting and has a title at 154, so maybe I’ll stay at 154 and fight those types of fights.”
On whether he would be interested in facing middleweight champion Sergio Martinez at 154, given the fact Martinez said he would be willing to meet Mosley at that weight:
“That would be great, I mean especially if the other fights can’t come through. It would be a good fight with him, as well.”
On whether he would like to have a rematch with Mora or whether he will move on and put it behind him:
“Actually, there’s no need for a rematch. It was a fight. I took it. It wasn’t crowd pleasing and I don’t want to be in a fight like that again. That’s the type of fight that I don’t want to be in. There are a lot of great fights out there. There’s Cotto. You know all these mover type of guys, I’m not sure whether I should stay away from them if I could. You know the guys who like to move around a lot and try to outbox you, and it’s good to box but I want to be in a fight where I’m in a real fight, like the Miguel Cottos, the Pacquiaos, and the Margaritos. Sergio Martinez, he’s a mover. He likes to box so it could be an ugly fight. He’s a real mover and he’s a big mover. So these moving types of fighters, I don’t know that that’s well suited for me. I don’t like to put that on the fans with those types of fights. So we’ll see what happens.”
On what he believes he needs to do to get back on the winning track:
“I just need the right dance partner to have those type of fights for the fans. Even this fight, you could see who was trying to make the action and who wasn’t, to the point I was almost running out of there. I had to catch myself from literally running at him to just hit him with punches and keep professional in the boxing ring. So you just need the right dance partner, and like I said—Miguel Cotto, Margarito, Pacquiao—these guys are the right dance partners because these guys like to fight.”
His view on whether trainer Naazim Richardson has a preference for him to fight at 154 or 147:
“Yeah, I think he likes the 147 pound weight division. I mean at 154, I feel pretty comfortable at that. I fought a middleweight which was basically a 160 pounder and I chased him around the ring. I think 154 is pretty good for me right now. I mean Miguel Cotto’s there, Margarito and Pacquiao are slowly becoming 154 pounders. I think that I can fit right in.”
On what he would ultimately like to accomplish during the rest of his career:
“I would like to accomplish fighting those three guys and maybe even a fourth one with Mayweather, a rematch with Mayweather. I think those three are the most exciting fights for me right now, and if I could do that then I feel I’ll do good.”
His views on the upcoming fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito:
“I think it’s a good match-up. I think styles make fights. You have two guys who are action-packed and throw a lot of punches, and we’ll see which one comes out victorious.”
On whether he would want the winner of Pacquiao versus Margarito:
“Definitely! I definitely want the winner of that fight.”
On whether he might be interested in fighting Paul Williams should he beat Sergio Martinez:
“Maybe. Maybe it’s something. He’s tall, lanky. It can be possibly another ugly fight, maybe not. I don’t know, so we’ll see.”
On whether he thinks his age has played a factor in recent performances against Mora and Floyd Mayweather:
“I think it’s a ‘styles make fights’ type of scenario. In that fight, it didn’t matter how old I was. I had to run after him and try to hit him, so it would have still been difficult.”
His views on training his son and how he believes his career and future potential are progressing:
“Well it’s going pretty good, and I think that he’s going to fight on this October show at the Nokia Center. It’s a Golden Boy card. It’s amateurs and professionals fighting on that card, so he’ll be one of the fighters on that card. I know he’s looking forward to making his debut at the Nokia Center.”
On his decision to recently team up with PETA to protest dog fighting and seal slaughter:
“I teamed up with them maybe about two years ago when Michael Vick was in jail. It’s a bad thing. I have dogs myself, and these dogs are forced to fight to the death. I think that’s a bad thing for the dogs to have to fight to the death. They don’t have referees in there to stop them. They just keep going until one of them dies, and that’s a bad thing.”
On Bob Arum’s comments following Mosley’s draw with Mora when he stated he doesn’t ever foresee Mosley getting in the ring with Pacquiao:
“Okay well, if he doesn’t foresee it than I don’t know what to say about that. That’s a decision for Pacquiao. If he doesn’t agree and he wants it, well then that’s up to him. If Bob Arum says he doesn’t want to put him in right now, then I’m not going to be begging them to fight Pacquiao. That’s up to them. I mean if they’re willing to fight, they’re willing to fight. It’s up to them. Maybe I’ll fight Cotto. If Bob Arum doesn’t want me to fight Cotto because they’re all in house—Cotto, Pacquiao, and Margarito are all with Bob Arum. So I guess I would be looking for somebody else to fight, and I guess Pacquiao will try to find somebody too, or maybe he’ll just go into office or something, because there will be nobody else left to fight for Pacquiao.”
On what he thinks he can do differently to be more successful in a rematch against Cotto:
“Well I thought I beat him the first time. I would just apply a little more pressure like Margarito did and I think I will get the result I’m looking for.”
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For those interested in listening to the Sugar Shane Mosley interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and one minute into the program.
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