Actually, a few days ago I wrote the title and a few paragraphs to Pacquiao vs Mosley, Why It Should Happen but got pulled away and now that Blog wouldn’t seem to make very much sense.
Why I am glad to see this bout signed is simple; this fight is going to be a Battle for as long as it lasts.
Manny Pacquiao at his core is a warrior. He loves to get into down and dirty exchanges. That’s what made all of us fall in love with watching him in a Boxing Ring. One way or another The Pac-Maniac always brings the battle to his opponent. This is one opponent who is going to be happy to have the fight right in his face with no quarter asked or given.
Now, the complaints have been that Shane Mosley is a bit faded and won’t be quick enough to catch Pacquiao. But consider Mosley has looked bad against defensive fighters who he’s had to chase to land anything against. That won’t be the case fighting Pac Man. You don’t have to go looking for Pacquiao. As a matter of fact, part of what makes Pac Man so much fun to watch is that he is always doing something. If you’re not firing punches at him, he’s firing at you. As for getting a rest, forget it. In a Pac Man bout, that’s not allowed.
Energizer Batteries should hire Pacquiao as their spokesman. That Bunny doesn’t have anything on the Pac Man.
Manny makes fighters go defensive by throwing clusters of punches.
Q: When was the last time anybody made Shane Mosley go defensive by outpunching him?
A: Never!
Shane Mosley has a warrior’s mentality. You hit him he has got to pay you back.
No one disputes Mosley’s guts and heart. I’ll openly admit I became a Shane Mosley fan when I watched him lose to Vernon Forrest the first time. Mosley was severely hurt and fought back with the kind of courage we all hope we would have in that situation.
If Shane has slowed a bit in the last few years I doubt it will make a difference against Pacquiao.
Pac Man will be gunning to score a spectacular knockout. Although he’s been dominant he hasn’t had a K.O. since he destroyed Ricky Hatton. Manny will want to stop Shane Mosley because no one has ever done it before.
There is also another reason why Pac Man will go for the knock out. Shane Mosley is not as large as the fighters Pacquiao has beaten by using quickness and movement. You can pretty much throw out the De La Hoya bout because that was Manny’s first fight at 147 pounds. He wasn’t certain how top Welterweights would take his punch.
The fighters he used a lot of movement against were Clotty and Margarito. Both of those fighters are extremely big Welterweights. With Cotto it was counterpunching and punching from weird, unusual angles that tore him apart.
Shane Mosley is an average-sized Welterweight who has fought at Junior Middleweight. He never really was large enough for that weight class, which is why he was dominated by Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. There’s really no doubt that Vernon Forrest was a full-sized Junior Middle even when he beat Mosley at Welterweight.
This is going to be a very interesting fight that I can see playing out in two ways.
1: Mosley’s reflexes have dulled to the point where he can’t compete with Manny’s hand speed. He’ll find out quickly if that is the case by eating some seriously big shots in the first few rounds.
Don’t expect Mosley to go down like Hatton. He takes too good a punch for that to happen. Instead, if he’s slowed enough to be a sitting duck, then like David Diaz, Mosley will take an extended beating and get stopped late.
The thing is even at his worst Shane Mosley will give Manny Pacquiao some tense moments by forcing him to exchange shots. So even if Mosley is as far gone as some of his critics think he’ll still make it an entertaining fight against Pacquiao.
2: This is the scenario I see most likely happening.
Hand speed gives Pacquiao problems. Just look at his fights against Juan Manuel Marquez. Hand speed was the ingredient that made both fights tough for Pac Man.
This is how it should go: Pacquiao is able to catch Mosley clean with hard shots. But because of Mosley’s hand speed and his extremely solid chin Shane is able to catch Pacquiao with a lot of counters. If Shane’s hand speed is comparable to Manny’s then you have a gunfight. I think Shane’s hand speed will be almost equal to Pacquiao’s because Manny won’t be running.
It’s the guys who run and clutch who drive Shane nuts.
Pac Man and Sugar Shane will try to out-trigger each other and there’s going to be some serious exchanges of firepower.
Because Mosley takes a hell of a punch don’t expect to see the kind of knock downs Pac Man scored against Cotto. But do expect the kind of weird, strange angled shots that Manny throws from the outside to land. The difference in this fight and Pacquiao/Cotto is Mosley’s chin.
When he’s tagged Shane Mosley will come roaring back for more.
There is the possibility here that Mosley could catch, hurt, and stop Manny Pacquiao.
It’s not likely, but it can happen, especially, if the Pacquiao camp is looking at Shane as a soft touch. He could be caught napping.
It has happened before. It could happen again.
If anybody has the guts and pure will to pull off something as unlikely as that it is Sugar Shane Mosley.
Make no mistake about it; Sugar Shane was embarrassed by the loss to Mayweather. Not so much by losing but because he had the fight in his grasp and let it slip away.
Freddy Roach has said that Shane Mosley froze when he had Mayweather hurt. I believe for the first time in his pro career the moment overwhelmed him.
That will not happen again.
If Shane Mosley hurts Manny Pacquiao expect him to attack like you’ve never seen him attack before. This is his absolute last chance to ascend to the top of the mountain and he knows it.
That’s why we will be buying this fight.
I can’t wait until May 7th.
*
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year
B.L. Morgan
B.L. Morgan is the author of Blood And Rain, Blood For The Masses, Blood On Celluloid, Blood And Bones, Night Knuckles and You Play, You Pay. They can all be ordered through Borders or Barnes and Noble. By February 2011 the first three John Dark Books and Night Knuckles will be available through Speaking Volumes and the rest are available through Stonegarden.net Publishing.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!