Shane Mosley vs. Andre Berto is Possible For Jan. 24

By Rick Reeno

Now that Antonio Margarito is out of the picture, Golden Boy Promotions is already looking at another scenario by making a potential fight between Shane Mosley and undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto.

The pre-fight hype has begun with Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer casting the first stone when he told Los Angeles scribe Lance Pugmire that “Mosley will teach Berto not to disrespect his elders.”

BoxingScene.com spoke with Berto’s promoter Lou DiBella, who is open to negotiating a deal for his fighter to take on Mosley. The date of January 24 is already reserved on HBO [where Margarito-Mosley was going to land].

For a potential fight to move forward on the January date, DiBella says the two sides would have to reach an agreement quickly.

A sticking point is Berto’s mandatory obligation to defend his title against Luis Collazo. DiBella and Collazo’s promoter, Don King, have agreed to a deal in principle for the fight to take place in early 2009.

Reaffirming his position, DiBella tells BoxingScene that a deal with Golden Boy would have to be reached soon, and it just might. Both DiBella and Schaefer are in Las Vegas for this weekend’s Ricky Hatton-Paulie Malignaggi event at the MGM Grand.

“Berto doesn’t disrespect any elders. He doesn’t disrespect anyone. Richard should realize that the elders is what’s wrong with boxing right now. I’m in Vegas right now. Richard is in Vegas right now. The one thing I’ll say is that we are nobody’s opponent. If they want to make the fight, that’s fine. If they want to market the fight as the elder statesman vs. the young champion, that’s fine. But we are not some opponent,” DiBella said.

The two sides discussed the possibility of a fight a few weeks ago. Mosley was more interested in facing Margarito. DiBella tells BoxingScene that he warned Schaefer that Margarito was going to turn the deal down.

“When me and Richard sit down, we always make a deal. We can make a deal in short order, but we are not doing anything that’s unfair. We are not against Mosley making more of the money, it just has to be fair. We also have a mandatory with Collazo and I have an agreement in principle with King and I would have to speak with him. If it makes sense to Don, maybe it can be worked out where Collazo fights the winner. If we were to change course, it would have done fairly soon,” DiBella said.

“There were signs about Margarito turning it down for weeks. Everyone knew. It’s a pretty good sign when a guy is unreachable for a few weeks that he is not accepting a deal. We are willing to make a deal, but the deal has to be right.”