Well, either Floyd, Jr. waited long enough for Shane to age just enough or there really is nobody his peer at 147lb.. I think it's a little of both, but it's hard to say that Floyd fought a shot Shane. I don't think he did. I think he waited until he was ready for Shane, which meant that he had to wait until he was 33....which meant Shane had to be 38. If they'd fought four or five years ago, Shane would have been a touch quicker and a tad fresher, Floyd a touch less sure and a tad smaller. Once again, the shrewd matchmaking talent of the Mayweather camp pays off.
When asked before the fight who would win, I called Shane a live underdog on whom I'd wager to take advantage of 4-1 odds. When asked, if bets were straight up, who I'd take...I went with Mayweather. I expected Mosley to work hard to back Floyd up and press the action, but that the result would be a safety first victory for Floyd, backing up and counterpunching. That isn't how it went.
Instead the first two rounds went to Mosley (on my card) with the two fighters posing and quivering at each other. When they engaged, it was clear that the speed advantage wasn't as dramatically favoring Mayweather as some, myself included, had feared. That told me that it would be up to boxing skill. And as they engaged in the second round, testing one another, it was Mayweather who came up wanting and Mosley rocked him hard, wobbling Floyd, making him hold on and buy time. But then Mayweather found another gear.
It's said of champions that they do have another gear...that when pressed, they find a way to get to a new level. I think it's all the more true of undefeated champions. It was true of Joe Calzaghe against a then-fresh and hungry Mikkel Kessler and again against Bernard Hopkins. And it was true of Floyd Mayweather.
When Floyd realized it was a boxing match and that he shouldn't stand in with Shane, he began to box and he began to put distance between himself and Mosley, both figuratively and literally. To his credit, he didn't just backpedal...he mixed backpedalling with aggression and kept Mosley guessing. When Mosley pressed, he did well but he never seemed to be able to find a rhythm of his own. He was always dancing to Mayweather's tune...in and out, back and forth. Mosley's best moments after the second round, keeping in mind he lost all of the last ten rounds on my card, came when he moved forward and pressed. But he seldom pressed Mayweather out of his comfort zone, letting Floyd through a couple of punches and back away or backing off himself to allow a breather.
Mosley didn't fight with the aggression of an undefeated fighter...because he isn't one. He didn't find a next gear, because he started at his highest gear. There was no higher level for Shane. He's a pro and he came ready to fight and he gave Floyd a fight. This was not a walkover. I had the fifth, sixth, ninth, tenth and twelfth rounds as close rounds, but even on my card, Floyd always did enough to carry the round. Indeed, in a later round Floyd once looked over smiling in a clinch at the HBO crew...but he only did it once, because he couldn't get away with it more. He may have been winning convincingly, but he wasn't dominating. He was just winning. And that's enough for Floyd. He's not going for the KO. He's just trying to win.
I thought referee Kenny Bayless was way too involved, breaking the fighters too early throughout the fight, seeming to want to be a part of the show instead of facilitating it. But then again, any referee who intones, "what I say you must obey" as his last words seems to be part carny anyway. He's betraying his activism. Happily, though he didn't let it get as rough as I think it should have been allowed to be, he also didn't ruin it for anybody. Let's face it...these two guys have been in deep too long too often.
I had it 118-110, matching one judge with the other two official judges scoring it 119-109, which probably means that they both gave the close first round to Mayweather. Ultimately, I think Mosley didn't adapt as much as I thought he would. He wasn't busy enough and he looked winded in the later rounds in the corner in a way I'd never seen him. Though he didn't really show much fatigue when the bell rang each round, he looked like he was being run ragged once he'd sat down. Mayweather meanwhile didn't look tired at any point. Mosley's trainer Nazeem Richardson even made note of it once, saying that Mayweather's real talent lies in his conditioning.
If that's true, then maybe age and mileage played a bigger part than we know because any realfightfan knows that while Sugar Shane Mosley is still in great condition, mixing metaphors, he's all but a classic and he's been rode hard and put up wet a lot. He always comes out of the stable looking the like the horse we remember, but we know how many hard races he's had and those contests take a toll on mortal men.
On Mayweather's side, he's run some hard races too...but not nearly as many or as frequently or for as long as Mosley. I think Mayweather deserves credit for beating Sugar Shane, but he didn't beat the same Sugar Shane who beat Oscar twice. He beat 95% of that Shane. And in a sport where little things make a difference, 5% is the difference between winning and losing. And Floyd the safety first master matchmaker knows it. Which is why he won't fight Manny Pacquiao. Not now and not ever.
But I hope he does.
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