By Lem Satterfield
A deal appears all but done for an April fight between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) and five-time titlist "Sugar" Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs). The two boxers have several common opponents. The most recent is Antonio Margarito, who Pacquiao sent to hospital after a twelve round beating. Mosley knocked Margarito out in nine rounds in January of 2009.
Mosley was impressed by Pacquiao's performance over Margarito, but views his own victory over the Mexican boxer as being more impressive. After watching several of Pacquiao's fights, Mosley saw several flaws that he plans to expose in the ring.
"My victory over Margarito was very impressive, and Manny's was impressive too. But I think that mine was a little bit stronger than Manny's. Manny did a great job, and he threw a lot of combinations, and he showed a lot of great fighting skills," Mosley said.
"But I think that it showed that I have great punching power. I think that I have the better punching power between the two of us. I see some openings in Manny's defense that I think that I can exploit, and I think that I can maybe get some harder shots in there because I think that my punching power is a little bit stronger than Margarito's."
While Mosley may have done better against Margarito, Pacquiao performed better against two of their other common opponents, Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley won two close decisions over De La Hoya, and lost a close decision to Cotto. Pacquiao knocked both fighters out. He stopped Cotto in twelve and De La Hoya in nine.
Top Rank Promotions CEO, Bob Arum, has set aside April 16 at the MGM in Las Vegas for Pacquiao's next fight.
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.
