By Bob Canobbio
Thirty-five year old Shane Mosley talked the talk prior to his interim welterweight title fight with former champ Luis Collazo, ten years his junior. Mosley informed the press and public that hid body felt “young again”, and couldn’t wait to fight. He said he felt 25-years-old, his age when he began dominating the lightweight division from 1997-’99. Just another aging fighter attempting to psyche himself into performing like he once did?
Not…Mosley walked the walk Saturday night in Las Vegas, totally dominating Collazo over twelve rounds (118-109 twice and 119-108).
How lopsided was Mosley’s victory?
He outlanded Collazo 200-87 in total punches, landing 33% to Collazo’s 14%. Mosley also landed 46% of his power shots (173 of 378) to just 19% for Collazo (67 of 350). Mosley’s cat-like reflexes and movement completely took away Collazo’s jab- he managed to land just 20 of 289 (7%) attempts.
Mosley held Collazo to single digit connects in total punches in 10 of 12 rounds- Collazo landed 10 punches in round eleven and twelve in the eighth, his best round of the fight. Mosley responded by putting up his biggest numbers in the eighth as well, landing 32 of 51 total punches (63%), including a whopping 32 of 48 (67%) power shots, many dug deeply into Collazo’s heavily-tattooed mid-section. Mosley landed 50% of his power shots over the last six rounds, never throwing more than 48 in any round- selective aggression.
Enough about Mosley’s offensive output, let’s look at his D. Collazo landed 87 punches all night and just 14%- that’s an average of seven landed punches per round. The welterweight average is 19 landed punches per round. Floyd Mayweather held the then-troubled Diego Corrales to an average of six landed punches per round, but Corrales did land 29% of his punches. Mayweather held Arturo Gatti to just seven landed punches per round and a percentage of 17%. Another ageless wonder and fellow Golden Boy partner Bernard Hopkins was hit by just 78 punches by Antonio Tarver, who landed 18%.
The all-time greatest statistical ass-whooping was turned in by Roy Jones, against Reggie Johnson. Johnson landed just 46 punches over 12 rounds and 13%.- that’s an average of FOUR landed punches per round. By hey, Roy was 30-years-old when he dominated Johnson and Floyd was 23 when he shutdown Corrales and 28 when he blitzed Gatti.
Speaking of Pretty Boy, he arrived in the ninth round Saturday night to conduct a HBO post fight interview. When asked after that round what he thought of the fight, he responded: “you seen what round I came in at.” When asked about Mosley’s performance, “He closes his eyes when he punches. He did what he was supposed to do, but there’s only room for one king.”
There may only be room for one king, but should Mayweather get past De La Hoya in May, he could fight Mosley next. He’d be a wise king and show up for all twelve rounds.