LAS VEGAS – Shane Mosley has reached the stage of his boxing career where people start to talk about his legacy. That is a sure sign that people believe that you “were” a great fighter and you should start to consider hanging up the gloves.
The “R-word” is not in Mosley’s vocabulary right now. Usually when a boxer starts to talk about retiring, he has already called it quits in his mind.
But walking away is the furthest thing from Mosley’s mind because he is concentrating on how to beat Manny Pacquiao and strip him of his WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in a Showtime PPV event Saturday night, even though he’s a whopping 9-1 underdog.
“Maybe if I get knocked out, I’d have to thinking about giving it up,” said Mosley in an interview with NYDailyNews.com.
But Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) has never been knocked out in a career that has spanned 18 years and three divisions in which he has won lightweight, welterweight and junior middleweight titles and along the way fought a Who’s Who of the best the sport has had to offer – John John Molina, Jesse James Leija, Oscar De La Hoya, Vernon Forrest, Winky Wright, Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr. And now, Pacquiao.
Mosley has faced the best in his division before. He has been in some of the biggest welterweight title fights of the last 10 years. But they have not produced the kind of accolades and honors that have surrounded some of the men that he has fought. Though he has been a fixture on the pound-for-pound list throughout his career, he has won the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Fighter of the Year award only once, in 1998, after defending his lightweight title five times.
In the major events, Mosley has always been the B-side. It was like that when he twice fought (and beat) De La Hoya. It was like that when he fought and lost to Mayweather last year. And it is like that now as he prepares to step into the ring against Pacquiao.
Through it all, Mosley has maintained a quiet demeanor. He has not stood up and screamed and shouted about being disrespected by promoters.
When De La Hoya made him a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, it appeared that Mosley would become the superstar to match the magnificent boxing skills that he has displayed throughout his career. Instead, Mosley was constantly told he would have to wait on the big fights while De La Hoya stepped out front to fight them first, particularly Mayweather and Pacquiao.
Mosley had to buy his way out of Golden Boy, leaving without a golden parachute but with a better opportunity to chart the course for the remainder of his career.