By Chris Robinson
It’s been a week since the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout became official and in that time you would have been hard-pressed to find many people showing signs of true enthusiasm for the contest, set to take place at the MGM Grand on May 7th. Simply put, Pacquiao is a deadly-efficient fighter on a roll while Mosley is looked at as a man well past his best given his latest performances, a May whitewashing to Floyd Mayweather followed four months later by a lackluster draw to East L.A.’s Sergio Mora.
While Mosley seems to be facing an uphill battle as he attempts to wrestle the WBO welterweight crown away from the Filipino star, one man who is dead fast in his belief of the Pomona charge is his trainer, Naazim Richardson. The Philadelphia native has always had a way with his words and has never been one to hold back his feelings towards any aspect of the sport. Richardson has obvious respect for the fighter Pacquiao has become but insists that Mosley is being highly overlooked in this scenario.
I reached out to Richardson last night and he was in rare form during our conversation, unabashed with his feelings and speaking with both intellect and brutal honesty. During our interview Richardson touched on why he feels that Mosley will shock the masses against Pacquiao, spoke on the respect he has for the eight-division champion, talked of how Antonio Margarito factors into the equation, and also discussed what Floyd Mayweather must be thinking at this particular moment.
Continue reading for all of Richardson's bold proclamations…
Off the hook…
“I think the Pacquiao fight with Shane will give him a chance to do what he has several times before. You’ve seen Shane lose to Vernon Forrest. Mayorga slashed Vernon Forrest. Then Shane smashed Mayorga. You’ve seen him lose to Cotto. Margarito slashed Cotto. Then Shane smashed Margarito. In this fight, what it is going to do is let Mayweather off of the hook. Because Mayweather will say he could have beat Pacquiao without them ever fighting because they will see Shane go in there and smash Pacquiao and then they assume that Mayweather would have beat Pacquiao.”
Finding a way to hurt Pacquiao…
“But the one thing I will say to you is this; Pacquiao and Margarito both, until you beat them, I don’t say you can beat them. Especially if you can not punch. First of all, if you can’t punch I don’t believe you can beat either one of them. If you can’t hurt Pacquiao, you can’t beat Pacquiao. If you can’t hurt Margarito you can’t beat him. If you don’t have the punch to hurt these guys they will walk right through whatever you are throwing. Margarito was walking through some of that stuff that Pacquiao was throwing. And we knew he could punch and he punches in combinations. Margarito walked right through that stuff and was cut.”
Once in a lifetime...
“Shane’s got a chance to shock the world. You don’t get these opportunities. Very seldom do you get these opportunities. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and even surpasses the Mayweather opportunity. Shane has to rise to the occasion.”
A strong-willed person…
“I don’t talk to him on a daily basis but the thing about Shane; he doesn’t get full credit for the man that he is. First of all, he has a strong will. He is a strong-willed person. Like I said, he is the kind of dude that isn’t going to lay down. I’m not saying he doesn’t get depressed, I’m sure he does, but he doesn’t stay depressed. He doesn’t let anything hold him down. If you put a hurdle in front of Shane he is going to clear the hurdle. And if he doesn’t clear the hurdle, Shane gets up, brushes his knees off and keeps running in the race. He’s that kind of dude. He’s resilient and I respect him in that nature.”
Explaining Shane’s performance against Mora…
“The Mora fight was the kind of fight that Shane didn’t look good in. Like Bernard with Roy Jones, you can’t look good when a guy is not trying to fight you. When a guy is there just trying to get to the next round. When a guy is just trying to get the rounds in, and the rounds themselves are like victories, the guy isn’t going to look good.”
Saying it again…
“Think about it for a second. I have said this, and I am on record saying it again, and I’ve seen this happen before in boxing; pound for pound, at one time in boxing Roy Jones, pound for pound, was the most talented fighter in boxing. But at that time, pound for pound, Trinidad was the best fighter. In boxing today, pound for pound, Floyd Mayweather is the most talented. Pound for pound, Pacquiao is the best fighter.”
The greatest compliment…
“Floyd, his family has given Pacquiao the greatest compliment that you can give a man. Maybe in a disrespectful manner, but it’s the greatest compliment you can give a man. I would never put it on a man unless it was proven. What if it was proven that Pacquiao wasn’t on something? These are the kind of compliments you get when people say ‘He’s so phenomenal that he looks like he’s on something’”.
I told you so…
“Pacquiao is looking phenomenal right now. Freddie does a great job. We can point our fingers and say what we what, we all have our opinions, but bottom line; Pacquiao is a beast. He is a beast. And I am telling you, and no disrespect, every writer that has written something about Shane, when Shane goes in there and smashes Pacquiao he doesn’t deserve an apology. They deserve to kiss his ass. Because there will be nothing that can be said. And I challenge anybody who has said anything negative about Shane after the Mora fight or the Mayweather fight. If he goes in there and smashes Pacquiao, those were the guys who were talking all this stuff, and don’t let them off the hook, and I will be saying ‘I told you so’”.
Pacquiao’s domination of Margarito…
“Like I told people, I picked Pacquiao to win that fight by decision. And I thought he would win it by decision. I said that Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to knock out Margarito. Margarito is one of those fighters, we always say ‘protect a guy because he will die in the ring’. There might be questions as to whether he has one of the greatest chins in the history of boxing. When they were talking about the hand wraps, shit, I wanted to know if there was something in Margarito’s chin. He had a steel plate in his jaw or something. That thing is unbelievable.”
Born to be a rumbler…
“I’m going to tell you what impresses me about Pacquiao. Pacquiao puts his ass on the line. He took some punishment in that fight. But he aint the kind of guy that is scared of it. He’s a real fighter, man. He’s the real deal. And I’m not taking anything away from Freddie, but what Pacquiao has in him, believe me, you have to be born with it. You have to be born to be a rumbler like that.”
Will we see Floyd in the ring again?...
“I hope so because he is an incredible athlete. And I wish him well as a young man. I’m not going to say that, shit, that were some of the same mistakes that I made in my youth. So, what can you do? Especially when you are in a position of attention like he is in. It’s hard. The world is watching. I wish him the best and I hope the young man gets his thing together and bounces back and gets back in that ring and starts showing his ass off in that ring like he’s capable of. I’d like to see him and Pacquiao fight. But it didn’t happen.”
Some point in time…
“I’ve always said I think you will get better action with Shane and Pacquiao. At some point in time, with Shane and Pacquiao, you are going to get a fight. That’s one of the things we saw in 45-year old Bernard. As technical as he is, you saw that Bernard would tuck in his chin and fight. Shane will fight. And some point in time we’ve got to have that in boxing.”
Mosley’s preparation…
“More than likely we will go to Big Bear. We may consider some other places because he’s trained there so many years we may just look into a change of venue. Like I said, in camp Shane is a dedicated athlete. But older athletes have to fight differently because you don’t have the same reflexes that you did when you were twenty years old. Bernard now has to cut the ring off but before he could just walk you down, run you down when he was younger. There are just adjustments that Shane must do to move on in his career. And now he is in the biggest fight of his life with a guy like Pacquiao in front of him.”
Two outstanding fighting spirits…
“Like I said, I look forward to the confrontation between those two. Because you’ve got two outstanding fighters and two outstanding fighting spirits in Shane Mosley and Pacquiao. I believe they are both committed to the project and committed to the sport. So, I think this is going to be a barnburner. I feel sorry for those who write it off thinking Shane is done. Then they gotta go back and see the replay.”
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. An archive of his work can be found here, and he can be reached at Trimond@aol.com