They said he didn’t take risks. They said he wouldn’t fight anyone who had a real chance of beating him.
They were wrong.
Despite the fact that Floyd Mayweather Jr. – undefeated in 41 fights now and a champion in five different weight classes – has beaten top level opposition his entire career, he still had his critics coming into Saturday’s fight against Shane Mosley, the number one welterweight in the world and one of boxing’s top five fighters in the eyes of virtually all pundits.
In weathering an early storm to come back and dominate Mosley in jaw-dropping fashion, Mayweather has resoundingly silenced even his most vehement critics.
Mosley was coming off arguably the best performance of his career – a one-sided thrashing of iron-chinned Antonio Margarito. If Shane had a more impressive win on his resume, it was edging Oscar De La Hoya the first time they fought in 2000. At the same time, Mosley was 38 years old when he stepped into the ring Saturday and breaking the longest layoff of his career at a year and five months.
After a tactical first round that could have gone either way, Mosley showed why he is still considered one of the fastest in the sport. He caught Mayweather with his left hand dangerously low, slamming home a monstrous right hand that turned the head of Floyd. Mayweather instinctively grabbed onto Mosley’s arm to buy recovery time.
Despite grinning profusely, there was no doubt that Floyd was stunned by the shot. With the crowd chanting, “Mosley,” Shane cracked Mayweather with another big right hand that buckled Floyd’s knees, one of them nearly touching down on the canvas. Mayweather wobbled backward on unsteady legs but was surprisingly still willing to trade punches with Shane. He looked weary but initiated enough clinches to get his feet back under him and somehow came back to drill Mosley with a right hand and a left hook. Floyd scored with another right before the bell, having survived the toughest two minutes of his entire career.
With trainer Roger Mayweather and corner man Leonard Ellerbe imploring Floyd to box, Mayweather came out for round three looking to make a statement. He did – in a big way – and ended up completely turning the fight around.
Mayweather marched out and hurled a pair of left hooks at Mosley. Referee Kenny Bayless warned Floyd to watch the use of his glove to set Shane up – something Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson told Bayless to watch out for in pre-fight instructions. Mosley said something to Floyd as well, and Mayweather gave a shrug and touched gloves with Shane after briefly talking back. Seconds later, Floyd knocked Shane’s head up with a perfect straight right hand. A left hook followed and knocked Mosley off balance.
With Mosley looking befuddled, Mayweather blasted him with another straight right hand, and even the crowd, which seemed pro-Mosley early on, voiced their appreciation of each blow. A left-right combination smacked Mosley’s head about and moved him back into the ropes. A fan tuning in late would have been forgiven for thinking Shane was the one who almost got dropped only minutes earlier.
While Mosley’s speed caught Floyd by surprise in round two, it was a completely different story the rest of the fight. Unfortunately for Shane, Mayweather is one of the few in boxing faster than him. And once Mosley started to realize that, the more hesitant he became to throw, knowing he was going to be hit clean, hard and often.
The adjustment had been made, and it’s difficult to remember a more drastic one happening as quickly in a fight of equal magnitude. By round four, Floyd was already back to letting his left hand hang below his waist yet still fighting as the aggressor and landing jabs. He turned Mosley’s head with a right hand and followed up with another that slammed Shane’s head so far back that his whole body teetered. Almost every punch Mayweather threw was a power shot.
After throwing down a right to the side of Mosley’s head in round five, Floyd leaned on Shane, who drove him backward, all the way into the ropes. Bayless had to separate the fighters after Mosley complained, telling each to keep it clean and making them touch gloves. When it happened again seconds later, Shane was still issuing complaints to Bayless, making his frustration all the more evident.
Floyd picked his spots and lit Mosley up through the next two rounds, slamming Shane’s head back into the ropes with a straight right in the seventh. The crowd thought Mosley was in trouble as Mayweather hit him with another big right hand.
Things got heated in round eight when Mayweather grabbed Mosley under the arm, only for Shane to throw him back into the ropes. Bayless quickly broke the fighters apart and administered Mosley a warning. Shane tried to argue the point, but Bayless was having none of it. They touched gloves, but Mosley still had some words for Floyd, admonishing him for hitting on a break. With Shane still talking, Floyd unleashed a left-right combination, snapping Shane’s head back.
Shane spread his arms and asked Mayweather why he would do that when they were talking. Floyd, meanwhile, was doing the talking with his fists, though he added some verbal damage into the mix himself. As he nodded his head, he seemed to be telling Mosley his jab was faster than Shane’s and that Mosley couldn’t deal with it. The crowd obviously saw Mayweather’s combination as a cheap shot because the fans began to chant, “Mosley” once again, trying to bring him back into a fight that was falling further out of his grasp with each passing round.
Late in round nine, they traded right hands, and Mayweather followed through on another that knocked Mosley’s head sideways. Early in the tenth, Floyd landed four unanswered rights. He added some uppercuts and a hard left hook as well, doing whatever he wanted. Another straight right and a sharp jab snapped Mosley’s head back late in the round and had the crowd anticipating a possible stoppage.
Between rounds, Richardson warned Mosley not to make him do something he didn’t want to, hinting at stopping the fight. He even made Shane repeat his instructions just to be clear that Mosley could still do what he needed to in order to pull out a come-from-behind victory.
Even with the fight in the bag, Mayweather didn’t let up in the championship rounds. He wanted a knockout and pushed for it by drilling Shane with a straight right in round eleven. He added a hard right to the head as Mosley came out firing in round twelve. Mosley later barreled himself into another one. Hopelessly behind, he pressed the entire round and still lost it handily to the sharper Mayweather.
At the bell, they embraced and shared words with the opposite camps while awaiting the academic decision of the judges. They eventually made it back to one another and spoke with smiles on their faces for the first time in a long time, Mosley even banging his glove over Floyd’s in congratulations long before the scorecards were announced 119-109 twice and 118-110 in favor of Mayweather.
The defeat was by far the most emphatic of Mosley’s career. He wasn’t just outpointed but beaten up for ten straight rounds. At the same time, his second round assault put Floyd in more immediate trouble than Mayweather had ever seen before. Mosley, simply put, forced Mayweather to show his heart and to be at his best. Keeping that in mind, he has nothing to be ashamed of.
Mosley had to play ball to make the fight happen. The fact that he had admitted to using steroids in 2003 made it even more important to initiate Olympic-style drug testing for the fight. Mosley submitted to what was asked of him, while Manny Pacquiao, the man everyone wants to see against Mayweather, would not. Whereas there is, justifiably or not, a cloud of suspicion now hanging ominously over Pacquiao’s accomplishments, Mosley’s willingness to prove he was clean was a credit to his name and a disservice to Pacquiao’s.
Mayweather, who was brought into the ring by the O’Jays, performing “For the Love of Money,” appeared to have won over the crowd by the end of the night with the way that he stood his ground and fought a bigger puncher. Perhaps, too, has he earned the respect of those who once criticized him for not fighting the best. They don’t come much better than Mosley, and none are as good as Mayweather.
