Julie Jacobson (LAS VEGAS) — At 39, does Shane Mosley need a miracle against Manny Pacquiao?
Shane Mosley will need to pull out all of his tricks if he hopes to upset the heavily-favored Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.
Shane Mosley will need to pull out all of his tricks if he hopes to upset the heavily-favored Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.
Shane Mosley will need to pull out all of his tricks if he hopes to upset the heavily-favored Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.
Well, flinty-eyed oddsmakers don't think Mosley has much of a chance against the tiny ring master and Filipino congressman.
Mosley, a future Hall of Famer who has fought any and all comers during a remarkable 18-year-career, is a 6-1 underdog against the WBO welterweight champion — considered by numerous boxing observers to be the world's pre-eminent pound-for-pound fighter.
Saturday night's scheduled 12-rounder between two of the sport's finest ambassadors will be fought at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and televised live on pay-per-view (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET) in homes, select closed-circuit locations and on the Internet.
"It's going to get very interesting, very quick," Mosley said.
Of course, that reasoning suits Mosley, who is 5-9 and holds a seven-inch reach advantage. His best chance of dethroning the 5-6½ kingpin appears to be scoring an early-round knockout. Both fighters are known for setting down and whaling away, but most observers doubt whether the aging challenger can outslug and outlast Pacquiao.
Pacquiao, 32, has a decided advantage in hand speed, which he used last November in Dallas to pick apart Antonio Margarito, who outweighed him by 17 pounds by the time they entered the ring at Cowboys Stadium. While he can punch hard with both hands, it is the lefthander's prodigious output that makes him so devastating.
He has lost only three fights in 57 bouts and only one (Erik Morales in 2005) since he was stopped by knockout in 1999.
"I've never seen a fighter re-invent himself like Manny Pacquiao," said Showtime analyst Al Bernstein, referring to the fighter's rise as an eight-division champion after turning pro as a 106-pounder in 1995.
Mosley brings championship-fight pedigree (15-5, 12 KOs in title bouts), a sturdy chin (he never has been knocked out in 53 fights) and ring intelligence. A sensational combination puncher in his prime, he buckled undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May with a crushing right hand in the second round, but Mayweather survived and easily won a decision.
"What we fail to (remember) is that you're not talking about an ordinary guy getting older in the ring," said Nazim Richardson, Mosley's trainer. "You're talking about a special guy, a legend. Sugar Shane Mosley does not have to match Manny Pacquiao because Mosley is bringing his own set of weapons."
During his career, Mosley was most effective fighting at 135, where he was never beaten and won the IBF lightweight title. He fought to a highly debatable draw in his last fight, against former 154-pound champ Sergio Mora, in September.
"He's not old — he moves like 31, 32 years old," Pacquiao said of Mosley.
In the months leading to the fight, Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, said he believed a knockout of Mosley was feasible.
When the 147-pound champion fought one of his ring idols, Oscar De La Hoya, in 2008, Roach had to convince him to try and finish off the aging former great. De La Hoya's corner halted the bout after the eighth round with the fighter battered and beaten on his stool.
"He came back to the corner (at end of the seventh round) and I said, 'Manny, your job is to knock him out,' " Roach said. "I've never said that to another fighter in my life."
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