Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins are reportedly up in arms with HBO about the possibility of their upcoming fights this winter being postponed up to a month each.
Dan Rafael at ESPN.com has all the details regarding the arrangements that have been made and might now be broken between HBO and the two veteran Golden Boy Promotions fighters. In short, neither man has a sure opponent at this time nor do they have a sure date – not exactly the best outlook for two fighters threatening to get old overnight.
Mosley has been out of the ring since January, when he destroyed Antonio Margarito to gain recognition as the number one welterweight in the world. Rather than take a stay-busy fight in May or June, Mosley chose to sit out and watch potential opponents Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto win fights against Ricky Hatton and Joshua Clottey. Instead of landing Pacquiao or Cotto for a fight in the fall as he had hoped, Mosley got neither. Cotto and Pacquiao are fighting each other this November.
The other opponent Mosley has been wanting to fight since 2007 is Floyd Mayweather Jr. Many fight fans were outraged when Mayweather refused to fight Mosley after beating Oscar De La Hoya in what was billed as “The World Awaits,” but they chose to ignore the fact that Mayweather had called Mosley out on numerous occasions dating back to 2000. After his fight with Henry Bruseles in 2005, Mayweather again called out Mosley, who was then coming off two one-sided losses to Winky Wright and could have used a big fight. Mosley instead proceeded to fight two lesser known welterweights while Mayweather got a pay-per-view date with Arturo Gatti.
When his superfight with De La Hoya was postponed by an Oscar injury, Mayweather again offered the fight to Mosley in 2006, but Mosley chose to go on vacation after knocking out Fernando Vargas and suggested Mayweather “go fight Margarito.” Once Mayweather became boxing’s cash cow with the win over De La Hoya the next year, Mosley suddenly wanted a piece of the action again. By then, Mayweather had lost interest, and it has remained that way since.
With Cotto, Pacquiao and Mayweather all tied up in big fights this year, Mosley finally agreed to face Clottey on December 26. Now, HBO is reneging on the offer, realizing that fights that close to Christmas typically don’t draw crowds or viewers. HBO is instead asking Mosley to fight on January 30 against Clottey or WBC Welterweight Champion Andre Berto. Clottey is expected to accept the date change while Berto is more hesitant. As WBC Champion, he either has to make a mandatory defense or unify titles with IBF Champion Isaac Hlatshwayo by that date.
So while Mosley-Clottey could go on as planned, the other problem is that Bernard Hopkins wants to fight on January 30 against either Cruiserweight Champion Tomasz Adamek or Light Heavyweight Champion Chad Dawson. Both are big fights and will be even bigger given that Hopkins celebrates his 45th birthday around that time. But to put on Mosley-Clottey in January, HBO would have to push Hopkins’ fight back to February, and Hopkins apparently doesn’t want to do that.
Part of the reason for both Mosley and Hopkins’ anger is that they have each been out of the ring a long time, and lengthy layoffs can badly affect the performance of fighters at their age. Mosley has been out since January, but Hopkins has been out even longer. His last fight was against Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik in October last year.
And for that, both fighters have no one to blame but themselves.
Failing to land a big fight is one thing, but taking yourself completely out of the game for a year is just inexcusable. Tune-up fights were invented to keep fighters busy while they waited for top dollar opportunities, and Mosley and Hopkins could have taken one or even two tune-ups since they last fought.
Maybe it’s unfair to expect fighters as accomplished as these two to fight tune-up fights for less money than what they’re used to. That’s fine. But neither should complain about a layoff when it’s something so easy to avoid. Just about every fighter in the welterweight division would love an opportunity to fight Mosley. The same goes for Hopkins at light heavyweight.
Hopkins, especially, deserves no sympathy. He had a fight with Adamek on the table for July and turned it down, instead choosing to sit on the fence. Adamek wisely took a stay-busy fight against no-hoper Bobby Gunn and won in four rounds. The win meant nothing but served its purpose; Adamek kept himself fresh to fans and got an easy victory. He even has another fight lined up before anything with Hopkins would materialize – a megafight for the country of Poland as he squares off with native heavyweight Andrew Golota.
Hopkins and Mosley both scored great wins on their last outings, but they failed to follow up with anything significant. It would seem Hopkins is still relying on the fact that he’s rated above Dawson in pound-for-pound lists , which should warrant him a shot against the incumbent Light Heavyweight Champion whenever he asks for it. He’s probably right on that point, but, to beat Dawson, he needs to be as active as ever. Sitting out for over a year isn’t going to do him any favors if that fight comes off. And Hopkins knows Adamek will never get a bigger opponent than him.
Mosley meanwhile has been relying on his own public relations team to spread the word that he’s willing to fight Pacquiao and Mayweather under any terms whatsoever, which is only making him look desperate. Even in the internet age, when fighters have talked their way into big fights (David Haye, anyone?), you still have to win fights to earn big fights. The best thing Mosley can do is keep fighting and fight often.
Lining up potential fights with Clottey and Berto is the right move for Mosley, who, if successful, will be essentially eliminating most of the options for Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto at welterweight. But he waited so long to do it that he can’t complain if it falls apart, as it is threatening to do now.
If activity held more weight in pound-for-pound lists, Mosley and Hopkins would be about off the radar at this point. Here’s hoping they each get their act together and give it one last memorable run. Legacies, after all, are built in the ring, not on the fence.
