By Patrick Kehoe

Wiping his perspiration beaded brow with an off handed flick, an aging Muhammad Ali winced slightly, straightening up while seated on the masseur’s table at his Deer Lake training camp, explaining his entire training regiment as “tryin’ to get my speed up... I’m workin’ on my timin’, my speed!” Routinely, he’d even pop a few left handed jabs to complete his thoughts with visual aids.

Old fighters tend to strip away the pretensions of youth. They aren’t interested in building up a repertoire, an arsenal of effective weaponry. Old fighters want to get back to the basics, keen to keep things as simple as possible. So over and over they work on what they remember to be the fundamentals of what made them successful. For some it might be walking sparring partners, trying to again embody the relentlessness of pure purpose. Beat on the heavy bag and visualize what power really means when properly delivered; that was Rock Marciano’s fixation. Others spend hours in front of mirrors, trying to retrace the exacting patterns used for defensive measuring, the secure gloves at the ready posturing from which their counter shots shower unsuspecting opponents. 

Up at the Golden Boy Promotions Big Bear Training facility, ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley works on his reflexive boxing, the speed driven hyper hitting style that made him lightweight champion and then the pound for pound king of boxing, at the start of the 21st Century.
Working again under the glaring eye of his father Jack, ‘Sugar’ Shane jitters and jolts, crafting his sparring sessions to peeks of frenetic stealth, skipping in and out, laying down rapid fire combinations as often as sparring partners effectively close down the distance he sets with his left jab. He knows that’s what Miguel Cotto, his next foe, will be doing closing fast with dangerous intentions.

The hope in the Mosley camp is that the aura of his championship training camps past has been reinvented – his boxing something well beyond confidence – with everything progressing, all systems firing as a seamless ritual for triumphs looming. Mosley moves from station to station, hitting pads, people or shadows, as if he really can feel the mission of “once again being the best fighter in the world” is absurdly close to happening for him. With the Cotto fight upon him, he’s made himself a true believer.

The distance between his current self and being a dominant figure at the pinnacle of the sport looks like a straight line from California to Michigan, by way of New York City. Take down WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto then it’s off to fight the egotistical genius Floyd Mayweather and presto... “I’m king again!” Two fights, two titanic fights, perhaps, but still just two fights for all the glory there’s left in boxing c. 2007-2008.
Endurance over time makes almost anything appear realistic.

Old boxers tend to clean house by firing trainers, cut-men or other incidental figures, whose very presence reminds ‘the champ’ of all the things that didn’t go according to the best laid plans and uncomfortable memories of losing, of titles relinquished,  a reputation tarnished. Reinventing means reimaging as much as remembering. Out with the old and in with the new and improved, the secret weapon of veteran boxers being the recommitment to what once made them great, in times gone by, when they were younger men, men in a hurry, ripe with furry and indignant purpose to prove themselves special, a winner, one of the best of their times.

Interestingly, Mosley still harbours a young man’s sense of mission and ambition. Double dipped losses to Vernon Forrest had Mosley barring the label of yesterday’s man. For years it seemed Mosley was a classic insider’s outsider eventually playing at promoting, beaming at ringside, and generally looking for a big stage moment to reassert his championship authority. A rematch win over Oscar De La Hoya led to a March 13, 2004 loss of his newly earned WBA and WBC jr. middleweight crowns to the formidable and much bigger ‘Winky’ Wright. And here is where irony doubles for wonderment, with Mosley making a near penultimate reassertion of his competence at the highest level in losing a majority decision. After the Wright rematch no one really knew just what to make of Mosley. Unquestionably he was fighting over his best weight at 154. And yet the talent and the drive to compete clearly remained intact. Just what could he make of himself at, say, welterweight? 

It wasn’t until February of 2007 that Mosley set upon the task to get down to a more lithe 147; pitching a near shutout over Luis Collazo proved that taking up the much rumoured fight with young gun Miguel Cotto was not just idle speculation and certainly not exploitation of his name and fame. Veteran champions are almost always hungry to win back, if even only for a night, the status commensurate with unconditional respect. Fighting the ultra popular Miguel Cotto at the Gardens in New York City means taking his need to compete – and thus realize the investment he’s made in himself as a champion for over a decade – near to the limit of what even a 36 year-old former superstar might define as possibility. And yet Mosley cannot wait for his shot.

To make his body incorruptible, the Californian has sequestered himself once again at Big Bear Lake all fall. Working himself over – Ali-like – Mosley has subjected himself to a regiment designed to heighten his reactive readiness to once again fight as a boxer capable of dynamic movement, injecting his combination throwing style with raw speed. It’s an ancient ambition with the veteran champion doing everything within his power to dredge up the most dominant quality he possesses. We might note that Joe Calzaghe showed Mosley the path to follow in bringing his signature skill for punching ad infinitum against Mikkel Kessler’s trap and crush power hitting.

For so long Mosley has played the smaller man. It may be fair to say he’s over played the smaller man ever since he left the lightweight ranks, in the 90s, to venture after the brass ring that was fighting Oscar De La Hoya, future adversary, business partner and eventual friend. In fighting Miguel Cotto Mosley feels like he’s more than a physical match for the titleholder, having matched up with championship foes as large as ‘Winky’ Wright. Formerly BALCO enhanced or not, Mosley knows he’s more than capable of being a muscle man when he needs to be, the guy able to absorb and come back with something impactful. Can Cotto take it to the body from as solid a hitter as Mosley?

Perhaps that’s the essential question: who is the real catcher in this fight? If strength can be measured as applied force, it may also be estimated via the ability to take the best of an opponent and still retain the reserves sufficient to deal decisive punishment in return. Many boxing people, including Jack Mosley, will tell you that it is as much the will that deflates in the trenches of punching exchanges as the physical limits of the body under duress. Team Mosley is not at all convinced that Cotto is a true catcher – ‘Chop Chop’ Corley the unspoken example – a guy who can stand up to the kind of onslaught a ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley can still dole out. 

Frankly, Jack Mosley has always had the view that championship fights are waged close to the line, fouls happen and intentions do change when desperation takes over. He’s made it clear that Team Mosley expect that Cotto in all out attack mode will be using his elbows on the inside and hitting to the biceps etc. If that’s the line, then they have no problem matching up in a physical contest, marginal rough housing is to be expected. What other primary confrontational device does Cotto have at his disposal?

Cotto can box; but, would he dare to attempt to out-boxing Shane Mosley? No one believes he’s likely to adapt that fight strategy.  Pressure and try and break down the older fighter to the body and then move up stairs later on, surly that must be mission one for Team Cotto? The younger fighter must take advantage of the all out physicality that youth has at its disposal.

In his way, sorting out power and displays of speed, Mosley intends to fight his fight: being ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley. Mosley understands himself as the better overall talent, the more complete fighter means boxer puncher with traces of proven brilliance. It’s the advantage of adaptability and being the complete boxer he intends to use against the hard driving Cotto. He’s not expecting himself to retreat into strict formulations of flicking and fleeing, prancing about to get his frame around and beyond the smothering power play of Miguel Cotto. Mosley expects, when necessary, to plant his feet and unload. Talk may be cheap, and yet Mosley honestly believes that at 147 he’s the equal of Miguel Cotto punch for punch. Nevertheless, speed can establish critical distance at optimal junctures and does tend to equate to controlling rhythms by which defensive postures and counter attacks are platformed. And Mosley knows what to do with the advantages he creates.

Mosley has the security of knowing he’s already contested the biggest fight of his life, the defining contest of champions against Oscar De La Hoya. He’s also cashed in upon that June 2000 victory over De La Hoya, pounding out a rematch decision, cementing the validation gained from his initial conquest.

All this is – would be – new ground to cover for Miguel Cotto. He’s never had to defeat a legend before.

Hopefully, he’s been warned that the terrain can turn mountainous before you know it, boxing a guy like Mosley with everything that really matters on the line. The Puerto Rican introvert has dreams of Floyd Mayweather and the prospect of this era’s signature showdown of champions to deny, for now, until Mosley can be swept aside.

Yes, Cotto’s mental struggles have already begun in earnest.

Being a practical man will serve Cotto well because Mosley’s a very determined guy and a guy dreaming those same dreams of Mayweather. The only difference is that Mosley’s realized those dreams, made them come to life as his destiny won.

Patrick Kehoe may be reached at pkehoe@telus.net