By Mark Vester
WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley is on a mission to clean out the welterweight division. He feels that he started the process with his dominating knockout of Antonio Margarito at the start of the year. On January 23, he faces undefeated WBC champion Andre Berto in a unification bout. He plans to fight at welterweight for another three to four years and his goal is to beat every major name at the weight.
"I love boxing. I give myself about three or four more years and hopefully by that time I should be able to wipe out the division," Mosley told BoxingScene.com's Luis Sandoval. "Any fight at welterweight is going to be exciting for me. Any time I get in the ring it's going to be exciting, it's going to be a show, it's going to be an event. I love fighting. I don't care who it is as long as they are the top welterweights. I want to clean out the division."
Berto was not Mosley's first choice, or his second, or third. Mosley was trying to get fights with Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr. But Mosley tells BoxingScene that Berto was always an option in the background.
"I knew these guys didn't really want to step in the ring with me. I was real frustrated but I was hoping that media would get behind it and push a little more and let the fans know that these guys are afraid to fight him," Mosley said.
"I just wanted to get the message out that they don't want to fight me so I'm going to fight these other welterweights. The reason they don't want to fight me is because I'm the most difficult. I'm the best. I tried to give the fans what they wanted. Berto was always a possible opponent, even when I fought Margarito. They asked me who I wanted to fight, Berto or Margarito, and I picked Margarito because he was considered the best. That's just the kind of fighter I am."
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