If He Wasn't A Proven Cheater Would Shane Mosley Deserve A Place In The Hall Of Fame?

[Mastrangelo]

I would compare Shanes lightweight career to flyweight career of Marc Johnson or strawweight career of Ivan Calderon.
Their level of opposition was really poor, especially comparing to other great fighters at those wieght classes that they are compared to, but they definitely proved that they could beat much better fighters than they did when they all moved up and compate with really good fighters at weight-classes that could not be their best.
I always thought that Shane could've been a monster at 140. He would still be very big for weightclass and at the time his opponents would get slower and making weight would be slightly easier with additional 5 pounds of room. I think he hurted his legacy in long term by jumping straight to 147, even if he was able to beat Oscar there.

[IronDanHamza]

Originally Posted by New England

his run at lightweight is very much unlike valero's. surely you cant be serious. edwin valero had a ton of talent but his career was largely a sham. he did not have that kind of power.

I am serious.

What's so much different about Valero's career and Mosley's Lightweight run? Do tell.

Both have high KO ratio's against almost entirely unranked bums.

Infact, the one good fighter Valero fought in DeMarco he looked better than Shane did against the one good fighter he fought in Holiday.

Originally Posted by New England

the fact remains that shane mosley's run leading up to and throughout his tenure as a LW was far from terrible. you're talking about him as if he's a bum and he's not. he's a hall of famer based on his work at lightweight and welterweight. looking through the thread i dont see anybody calling it some historic lightweight run.

It's it not terrible, then what is it?

Is Micheal Moorer's run at LHW not terrible either?

And no I'm not talking about him as if he's a bum at all. Where have I insinuated that? I am talking about him as if his Lightweight run was a joke, which, it was.

Originally Posted by New England

he moved up in weight to chase big fights. it's not like he was some bum who would have eventually been destroyed by the lightweight shark tank [ ] in 1998..

Where have I said he'd have been destroyed if he fought more than 1 or 2 ranked fighters? I haven't said that.

Infact, I've said the opposite. He'd have beaten most of the ranked fighters, infact he'd have dominated most. But atleast then it would have legitimized his LW reign as opposed to fighting almost entirely unranked bums making it non existant.

Although, he'd have lost to Stevie Johnston IMO.

Originally Posted by New England

if the money had been there and he could make the weight he could have stuck around and smashed the "ranked comp" at 135

He could have smashed the ranked competition instead of smashing the unranked competition.

Originally Posted by New England

instead he took on oscar de la hoya at WW after two tune ups and became the top p4p fighter on the planet

Not sure what the point here is.

Originally Posted by New England

not everybody is going to be in the top 5-10 of all time at his weight
that does not make him terrible.

Haven't implied that.

Jose Luis Castillo's Lightweight reign was awesome.

Shane Mosley's was terrible.

If you beat up and destroy a long list of unranked fighters I don't consider your reign any more than terrible.

Micheal Moorer, Edwin Valero, and Shane Mosley's runs at those times in their career's were atrocious.

Originally Posted by New England

you're talking about shane mosley like he's edwin valero

No, I'm not.

I'm talking about Shane Mosley's Lightweight reign as if it's as lack luster as Edwin Valero's short career.

[IronDanHamza]

Originally Posted by jabsRstiff

I agree that Shane's 135 competition was nothing special. But, he at least showed there was a massive gap between him and those guys while there.
I think he showed by coming up to 147 and meeting much better competition that his 135lb run wasn't a "sham"....he was pretty much just that good.

I think nothing special is anunderstatement.

And did he really show the massive gap between him and the guys that were there?

Like I said, the only good fighter who was ranked highly or possibly even ranked at all was Philip Holiday and he looked distinctly worse and beatable in that fight compared to the other unranked bums he fought there.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Steve Johnston has beaten him if they'd have fought.

[Cardinal Buck]

yes, the Margarito win was enough

[BoxingGenius27]

He's still a HOF'er.