By Sammy Rozenberg

 

In a battle of slick welterweight boxers, "Sugar" Shane Mosley (44-4, 37 KOs) won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Luis Collazo (26-3, 12 KOs) in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

The 35-year-old Mosley looked like a 25-year-old Mosley by outworking the younger Collazo in almost every round of the fight. He jumped on Collazo from the first round with harder punches to the head and body and never stopped fighting.

 

There were points in the fight where Collazo's southpaw style gave Mosley some trouble and Collazo was able to land a few hard left hands, but not enough of them to win the rounds or change the momentum of the fight.

 

In the eleventh round, a counter right hand sent Collazo down in the final seconds. Rather than sit on his lead in the twelfth and final round, Mosley tried to go for a knockout as Collazo looked for a lottery punch that never came. The final scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 119-108.

 

The welterweight division is the absolute goldmine of boxing. The amount of talent that currently exists in the welterweight division is unmatched when compared to any weight division in the sport.

 

Even with such a high level of talent at the weight, Mosley will still have trouble finding an opponent because a lot of the big names at 147 are locked up in upcoming bouts or litigation proceedings.

 

The man who would bring any welterweight the most money, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., is scheduled for a meeting with Oscar De La Hoya on May 5 in Las Vegas. The fight with De La Hoya takes place at the junior middleweight division of 154-pounds, or seven pounds shy of the welterweights.

 

Most anticipate that Mayweather will back down to the welterweight division, whether or not he wins of loses the bout with De La Hoya. Mayweather says that he will retire and Mosley blew his chance at a fight and he plans to retire after beating De La Hoya.

 

"He had the opportunity to fight me since 1998. Now he is calling me out to make a big payday. He's part of Golden Boy Promotions, just one of Oscar's puppets," Mayweather said.

 

Three other big names at the weight, WBA champ Miguel Cotto, WBO champ Antonio Margarito and undefeated Paul Williams, are involved in a circle of confusion and litigation.

 

Cotto will go up against Oktay Urkal in a mandatory title defense on March 3 in Puerto Rico. Less than two weeks ago, it was announced by Top Rank, that Cotto would then face Antonio Margarito in the main event of a June 9 pay-per-view.

 

Almost a week following the announcement, it was reported that Margarito had signed a contract to face Paul Williams in a mandatory defense. Goossen Tutor, promoter of Margarito, put in the highest purse bid to win the promotional rights to the Margarito-Williams bout.

 

Top Rank, promoter of Margarito, did not take part in the WBO purse bid because it was perceived that Margarito would vacate his title to face Cotto in June. Shortly after the news came out of the Margarito-Williams clash, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank, immediately issued a statement that a lawsuit would be filed against Goossen Tutor, Margarito and Margarito's co-managers.

 

Arum, claims that his company owns 100% of the promotional rights to Margarito, and he did not have permission to sign a contract to fight Williams. And, the only reason his company did not participate in the purse bid proceedings was because he was promised by Margarito and his managers that a fight with Cotto was the path they were taking.

 

According to Margarito's team, they were unable to come to a financial agreement with Arum for the Cotto bout. On the other end, the WBO gave them a limited window to commit to a bout with Williams, or Margarito would be stripped of the title. As the clock began to tick down, Margarito signed the contract to make his mandatory defense. If a favorable deal did not materialize for Margarito (with Cotto), he would have lost the bout with Cotto, and lost his title, which would have lost him the bout with Williams.

 

It appears that potential bouts against Margarito, Cotto and Williams are up in the air until the legal dispute can be sorted out.

 

Regardless of what happens in a court of law, Mosley is not going to face either Cotto or Margarito in the near future. The main obstacle from making either fight is the feud between Golden Boy Promotions, where Mosley is a partner, and Top Rank, who handle Cotto and Margarito.

 

Kermit Cintron, the IBF champion, is also embroiled in a legal dispute with his promoter Bobby Bostick, and his former promoter Main Events. Originally, it was Cintron who was supposed to face Mosley tonight. After he learned that Golden Boy Promotions was going pay Bostick a number that was significantly higher than what he was actually going to receive from Bostick for the Mosley bout, he refused to move forward with the fight.

 

Cintron also revealed that Bostick owed him a lot of money for prior bouts, including a memorable bout with David Estrada last April. Main Events had an option to put in a bid for the bout with Estrada, but were outbid by a higher number from Bostick.

 

After learning that Bostick did not live up to his bid, Main Events felt duped and immediately sued him for the right to promote Cintron. Bostick has counter-sued against Main Events and Cintron, claiming that Cintron's claims of owed money is false.

 

Some other recognizable names that are possible opponents are Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, both former undisputed welterweight champions. Baldomir does not have a date set for a bout, and Judah returns to action in April. Arturo Gatti has a tentative return date on July 14, rumored to be his final bout but it's unlikely that Mosley will be picked as the opponent.

 

Mosley plans to stay active, already targeting a return to the ring in the next few months.

 

"I'm going to fight again in May, June, possibly July. It's probably going to be in June," Mosley said.

 

On the undercard;

 

Former WBA junior welterweight champion Vivian Harris (27-2-1, 18 KOs) overcame a very game Juan Lazcano (37-3-1, 27 KOs) to win a close unanimous decision. The scores were 114-113, 115-112 and 115-112.

 

After Harris took the first two rounds, Lazcano began to fight with intensity in the third round and made it a very close contest for the entire fight. In the twelfth and final round, referee Tony Weeks deducted a point from Lazcano for a minor low blow, which gave Harris a 10-8 round to secure the decision.