MANILA, Philippines - Naazim Richardson, Shane Mosley’s trainer, issued one piece of advice to his ward: Ignore the odds and focus on the task at hand.
Speaking to fighthype.com, Richardson expressed confidence that the heavy underdog Mosley will emerge victorious in his upcoming superfight with Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao on May 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“There have been days where I really have to put it in his (Mosley’s) head that odds and media predictions don’t mean anything. It really bothers him when he reads some of that stuff,” Richardson told fighthype.com’s Percy Crawford.
As of press time, the three-division world champion is a 7 to 1 underdog, with most in the media expecting a Pacquiao victory.
Mosley’s underdog status was based heavily on his last two fights – a one-sided decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2010 and a lackluster draw against Sergio Mora in September of the same year.
But a confident Richardson even went as far as predicting that the Pacquiao-Mosley fight will end up as one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.
“I told Shane this fight is his Buster Douglas versus Mike Tyson moment. You knock this dude out and all will be forgiven. Fans and media will forgive him for a few bad performances, his Aunt’s will forgive him for the test he failed back in the day,” he said.
The trainer, of course, was referring to Tyson’s upset defeat to an unheralded Douglas in Tokyo, Japan in 1990. Douglas, a 42 to 1 underdog, knocked out the then-undefeated Tyson in the 10th round to score the biggest upset in the history of the sport.
Richardson insists Mosley (46-6-1, with 39 knockouts) can pull off a Buster Douglas.
“He just has to do what we know he’s capable of doing and pull off this upset and I promise you all will be forgiven,” he said.