By Eric Roman Sr: At this point we’ve all seen and heard it before, fighter’s just don’t seem to know when to hang them up, on Saturday May 5th, 2012, “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-8-1 39ko’s)gave everything he had in an attempt to prove all of his naysayers wrong, and although he took one of the worst beatings he’s received in recent memory, he reminded us of just how special of a pugilist he truly once was.
The young cinnamon colored hair champion known as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1 29ko’s) won a poised, near perfect unanimous decision over the old savvy veteran, and proved he is likely to be the heir apparent to the Pound for Pound throne, but something about that fight caught my attention, not just the natural ability of the young Mexican Lion, but it was that look in Mosley’s eyes, his heart, his chin, you knew how bad he wanted it, you knew he’d leave his life in that ring if he had to.
Sure, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but who are we to criticize him, we’re the first to complain about a boxer who run’s around the ring all night long, or lays down when a fight gets rough..
Shane Mosley has given us enough memories for the next twenty years, early in his career he tore through the Lightweight division, then skipped the Jr. Welterweight division completely to go on to have eight straight fights at Welterweight, including a mega match up at Staples Center in Los Angeles where he defeated long time amateur rival and friend Oscar De La Hoya in a throwback. For the last nine years he’s bounced back and forth from 147 lbs to 154 lbs. The most memorable fight during that nine year span, which happened to be his last hurrah, came on January 24, 2009 when he dethroned and exploited the once feared Antonio Margarito in a scintillating ninth round TKO and captured the WBA portion of the Welterweight title.
Last Saturday we watched as another living legend was beaten, like Bernard Hopkins a week before him, not only by his opponent but by his age, I can only imagine what a contest between a young Shane Mosley in his prime would have been like with the budding Mexican star. Never the less, the legacy of “Sugar” Shane is locked in. A sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer, multiple world titles in different weight classes and again, memories we can share with our Grandchildren. His father used to call his style power-boxing, for me, he was old school. A classic fighter who would have been able to compete in any era, with any fighter. He deserves a standing ovation for giving the fan’s boxing the way we’ve always wanted to see it, the last of a fading era, the torches have been passed to the likes of Canelo, Andre Ward, Yuriorkis Gamboa and a whole slew of rich talent. Talent that will catch the attention of new fan’s and new fighter’s alike. The only job left for us, is to remind them of how great this era was, as we were reminded of the all time greats before them. Time to ride off into the sunset Shane, you have nothing left to prove.