By Mark Vester
The possibility has arose of a welterweight clash between former champions "Sugar" Shane Mosley (44-5, 37KOs) and Ricardo Mayorga (29-6-1, 23KOs). It was discussed in Primera Hora, although the quotes were actually from boxing writer Steve Kim, regarding the Mayorga's insistence to fight Mosley.
Mayorga and Mosley were tentatively scheduled to meet in 2004, when most experts were backing Mayorga to win a unification bout with Cory Spinks in December 2003. Spinks went on to upset Mayorga and the fight with Mosley went into the toilet. Mosley, who was just coming off a title win over Oscar De La Hoya at junior middleweight, turned down a multi-million dollar trilogy bout with the Golden Boy, and instead took a unification bout with Winky Wright. Wright would easily beat Mosley in their first meeting and then won a close rematch.
Mosley is coming off a close decision loss to Miguel Cotto, and Mayorga went up in weight from 154 to 166-pounds to decision Fernando Vargas. Mayorga is eager to move back down to the very profitable welterweight division.
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, told Kim that Mayorga is a good possibility for Mosley's return, which some have rumored for the May 3 undercard to De La Hoya's HBO televised tune-up bout.
Due to the scheduling of the top welterweights, Mayorga becomes a frontrunner if he's actually serious. Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Kermit Cintron are set to return on April 12. Cotto will face Alfonso Gomez and Margarito will fight a rematch with Cintron. Cotto is slated to fight the winner of Margarito-Cintron in July. Floyd Mayweather Jr. won't fight until September against De La Hoya and will probably not fight again until 2009. Then there is Paul Williams, set to fight Carlos Quintana on February 9, but worth a lot more risk and a lot less money than Mayorga.
Given the money and the names involved, it's doubtful that HBO can possibly budget Mosley-Mayorga for De La Hoya's May tune-up. The fight shouldn't really be a co-feature to a tune-up bout. The fight is big enough to stand on it's own legs as a main event fight on any network.
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