By James Slater: It is indicative of how big a mismatch the upcoming Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight is, in that the best experts of all, the bookmakers, have Pac-Man listed as a whopping 9-1 favourite to win the May 7th clash in Las Vegas. The bookies seldom get it wrong, seeing as how their very livelihood is on the line when it comes to posting the odds, and this particular brand of expert is thinking the same way the majority of the fans are: “Sugar” has next to no chance to look sweet against the Pound-for-Pound king.
It is a good thing promoter Bob Arum has done the decent thing and put together a good supporting bout for the show at the MGM. In this case, the supporting bout is almost sure to outshine the main event. Set to rumble in a rematch, are Mexican lightweights Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon; the two fighters who went to war on December 4th of last year, in the process giving us a genuine FOTY candidate.
Soto, who defended his WBC 135-pound crown in the relentless, back and forth thriller, won on points last month. The return, set for a mere five months later (no time at all considering how gruelling the fight was), could go either way. Indeed, we might be on the verge of seeing a tremendous lightweight trilogy!
Both guys gave their all in Anaheim, California just under a month ago, and that will be the same thing we witness in May. Soto, of course, is well known to fight fans, due to his great wins over the likes of David Diaz, Jesus Chavez and Bobby Pacquiao. The two-weight ruler came so close to meeting his match in the form of the relatively unknown Antillon though.
Soto, now aged 30, had to pull out all the stops to hang on to his WBC strap by way of a fantastically close unanimous decision win (just a single point in it according to two of the three judges), and the 28-year-old who was having his second crack at a piece of the lightweight title made a name for himself as an incredibly gutsy fighter. The fight has to be seen to be fully appreciated (thankfully it can be viewed on YouTube), but the return will be seen by a whole lot more people than the original was due to the big venue the expected war will play out on.
The number of punches, both thrown and landed, was amazing the first time around. The second fight promises to be just as wild and entertaining. Unless, of course, Soto – known as “The Crafty Little Fox” – finds the last fight took way more out of him than it did his rival. Is Soto about to give up his second title? Will age 30 prove to be a big landmark for the warrior who has already had 64 pro fights? Antillon has a fighting style that won’t allow him to have too long a pro career, but he just might be able to push himself harder than Soto will be able to in the anticipated rematch. Had the challenger not been deducted a point in the 5th-round of the December war, he would have gone home with a draw.
As it is, the 28-2(20) fighter gets a second chance to become WBC ruler anyway. But regardless of who wins in May, after this fight the fans will leave the MGM in Vegas not talking about Pacquiao’s KO of Mosley; but of the battle that took place down at lightweight!