By Matteo Alderson
Don’t let the so-called boxing experts fool you when they say Sugar Shane Mosley is washed up because his loss to Winky Wright had little to do with his boxing skills, speed, or timing. It has more to do with the age-old adage that the good big man always beats a good little man.
Really Mosley’s lack of success in recent performances has had more to do with the fact that he is fighting two or three divisions above his best weight. If you look through the annals of boxing history, you’ll find that even some of the greatest fighters in history have had trouble being successful in higher weight classes. The only reason that some of the fighters in the past two decades have been able to collect so many titles in so many different divisions is because the proliferation of titles and weight classes has had a detrimental impact on the quality of champions in each weight class. As a result marketable fighters have been able to maneuver their way into becoming multiple division titlists.
Even though there has been some occasions where the smaller fighter moved up and beat the legitimate dominant champion at the higher weight, in most cases these multiple division champions have rarely beaten the best fighter in the higher division.
I remember in the early 80’s when Alexis Arguello and Tommy Hearns were racing each other to be the first fighter to win titles in four different weight classes. Arguello was unsuccessful in his two bids against Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor while Tommy Hearns was finally successful when he stopped Juan Roldan in four to win one of Hagler’s vacant titles.
Still even if you think about it, the Hitman’s fourth title wasn’t legitimate. I don’t think that Roldan was the second or even third best middleweight in the world. Still it was a significant accomplishment that he was even able to compete at a world-class level in so many different weight categories. So after Tommy broke the record by collecting four world titles, other fighters wanted to achieve the same feat and Sugar Ray Leonard further perfected the art of cheapening the collecting of organizational world titles by fighting Donnie Lalonde for two titles in the same night.
You see Donnie Lalonde had won the vacant WBC light heavyweight title by knocking out Eddie Davis in two rounds and the WBC had just created the 168lb. Super-middleweight division. Even though it was against their own rules for a boxer to fight for two of the WBC’s titles in the same fight, the prospect of a lucrative sanctioning fee and the exposure that the WBC would get from the fight made them conveniently forget about their own rules.
That night Leonard came off the floor and knocked Lalonde out to add two more titles to his three. This made Sugar Ray the first fighter in history to win titles in five different weight classes. But maybe we should say that Leonard was the first fighter to buy his 5th world title. You see Donnie Lalonde was so eager to make a multi-million dollar paycheck for fighting Leonard that he agreed to fight at an artificial weight that substantially weakened him.
In 1989 Roberto Duran accomplished the feat of titles in four different weight classes by beating Iran Barkley for the WBC middleweight title. Even though Iran Barkley was crude and probably not the best fighter in the division. It was a great accomplishment anyway you look at it considering that Duran’s prime occurred at lightweight where he made a record twelve consecutive defenses.
So by the end of the 80’s Duran, Leonard, and Hearns were the only men to have captured world titles in four different weight classes. Still from a purist standpoint it’s debatable if even one of these claims was legitimate. Think about it, how could Tommy Hearns have been the real Welterweight champion of the world if Sugar Ray knocked him out? How could Sugar Ray have claimed to be the Light Heavyweight champion of the world when an ex-Olympian and much classier Virgil Hill had the WBA title? And how could Duran be a four-time world champ when Tommy Hearns annihilated him in two rounds when he was supposedly the 154lb champ. I can go on forever ripping up these championship claims, but the point that I want to make is that it’s hard for fighters, even great ones to be successful at a higher weight class against the best fighter at the higher weight.
The multiple division title-claiming trend continued into the nineties, Jeff Fenech almost won a title in a fourth weight class, but he was robbed in his bid for the WBC 130lb championship against Azumah Nelson. Then came Pernell Whitaker, after achieving the feat of being the best fighter in the sport, he was looking to further cement his legacy by joining Duran, Leonard, and Hearns as the only fighters to have won titles in four different divisions. So Whitaker fought Julio Cesar Vasquez for the WBA 154-pound title. Sweet Pea was a great fighter but if you’ve seen that fight you can remember how much trouble the crude, but powerful Vasquez gave Sweet Pea.
And even though Pernell’s skills were grossly superior to those of Vasquez, the Argentinean’s size and strength kept him in the fight. By the way, Vasquez was a pretty good champion and had a couple of legit defenses against Carl Daniels and an undefeated fighter named Winky Wright. After Pernell Whitaker’s feat, the obscure Leo Gomez of Venezuela won world titles in four different weight classes. He won the WBA 105, 108, 112, and 115 pound titles. Is it a coincidence that a Venezuelan boxer won four of a Venezuelan organization’s world titles? I don’t think so.
Here we are in 2004, and Oscar De La Hoya claims he is a six-time world champion even though he just got knocked out by the real middleweight champion; Bernard Hopkins. Two of Oscar’s titles are super-bogus. The WBO 130lb title is anything but legit because the WBO was still in its infancy and at the time there were three other solid titlists. They was John-John Molina, Genaro Hernandez, and Azumah Nelson. The guy that Oscar won the title from, Jimmy Bredahl, wasn’t even close to being in the Ring magazine’s top 10. What does all this mean and how does it relate to Sugar Shane Mosley you ask? You see it means a lot because by looking at boxing history, it becomes apparent that most of the fighters that have fought and successfully competed in higher weight classes have not done it legitimately. Many of them have done it by utilizing loopholes and technicalities that are an inherit part of the present championship landscape.
The biggest loophole is that a fighter can claim to be the world champion of a division without even having to fight one of the division’s top fighters.
This quick historical breakdown of contemporary multiple division titlists is very relevant to the Shane Mosley-Wright fight because Mosley had been a lightweight champion. We were asking Shane to do what some of the greatest fighters in history have failed to do.
We were asking him to beat the best fighter in a division that was at least a division higher than where Shane should really fight. Sugar Shane was fighting three weight classes above the weight where he won his first world title. It was obvious throughout both fights that Winky’s size and natural strength advantage enabled him to dominate the smaller man. How can we expect Sugar Shane to fight three weight classes above his best weight and then fight and be successful against the best fighter in that weight class.
That doesn’t happen too often folks, if at all. Also, a couple of scribes were saying that technically Shane has slipped because he has been off balance and not throwing straight punches. This may very well be, but it may also be that Shane has deliberately been trying to load up on shots so that they will have the desired affect on bigger men.
Sugar Shane is not a 154 pounder. Hell I think he was a small welterweight and he still gave Winky Wright a good fight. Shane needs to go down to 147 pounds. Mosley would be the favorite against Cory Spinks and if he wins that fight, he would be able to set up a lucrative bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. or maybe even a rubber match with the Golden Boy. But so far Mosley has emphatically stated that he is a 154 pounder and that he wants to stay in the division.
I know Mosley can make welterweight, but maybe he’s made enough money where he thinks it’s not worth the sacrifice. Making weight is part of the sport and it’s hard. I’ve done it. Drying out and eating super small portions for a few days before the weigh in is tough, but it’s part of the sacrifice, it’s part of being a fighter.
Winky Wright does it and Shane has to decide if it’s worth it. I think that right now Mosley is satisfied with his performance because it was an improved one. After he evaluates his prospective fights in the division that he will realize that he should go back to the welterweight division. Joe Goossen’s made comments after the fight where he stated that Shane’s performance proved that he still has a lot left, Goossen's comments were right on target.