Sugar Shane Mosley: “I knock people out. I got pretty good punching power, even Floyd

......was almost a victim” Sugar Shane Mosley: Hey, how are you doing? Jenna: I’m doing fine. We’re happy to have you back on the show. Mosley: Thank you. It’s good to be back on the show, thank you.. Jenna: Shane, it was announced that you’ll be facing off against Sergio “The Snake” Mora on September 18 at the Staples Center in LA. How do you feel about this match-up? Mosley: I feel it’s going to be a good match-up. Being that Sergio beat Vernon Forrest one time before and Vernon’s got the victory back, he’s a worthy opponent. It’s going to be a great fight at the Staples Center and all the fans will see my comeback fight. It will be great. Jenna: Now Sergio Mora has not fought at this weight class since his rematch loss to the late great Vernon Forrest. What things do you see yourself having to do to share the same success that Forrest had against him? Mosley: Well, I think that I have to use a lot of movement, he’s a little bit bigger, good movement, speed and power, and using my advantage of experience. Jenna: Your last bout, Shane, was obviously against the pound for pound number one guy in the sport, that would be Floyd Mayweather Junior. Can you tell us a little bit about that bout and how you feel it went? Mosley: Floyd won a unanimous decision. I had some pretty good moments in the fight where he got a couple of good shots in but for the most part it was his night and he was victorious. Jenna: In the second round of that fight you had him hurt and it looked like you might be able to stop him. Did you think you had him at that moment? Mosley: Yeah, I thought I was one punch away from it being an early night but he was able to get out of the way and survive. He was able to get himself back together and outbox me. Jenna: Now Shane, you’re moving back up to the 154 pound division for this fight with Mora. Why did you decide to return to this weight class? Mosley: Just to get in the ring again and get a fight. I mean I was going for a fight with Andre Berto but we couldn’t work out the financial stuff. We couldn’t get that together so we didn’t make that fight happen. So this fight right here with Sergio Mora, he’s a good contender and actually won The Contender and it’s going to be a great fight in LA. He’s from LA, I’m from LA, so it’s another LA fight. Jenna: When you look at the 154 pound division, who do you see out there as someone you would like to match up with if you are successful against Mora? Mosley: Well you have Sergio Mora, you have Sergio Martinez, you have Miguel Cotto, there’s a possible match-up with Pacquiao if Floyd and Pacquiao can’t make it happen. So there’s a match-up with Pacquiao. There’s a few guys out there who I can tangle with. Jenna: Would you consider a rematch with Miguel Cotto to be your main focus at this weight class? Mosley: There would definitely focus there because everybody would like to see that type of fight, a rematch between me and Miguel. It’s kind of hard sometimes because we have different promoters. Sometimes it’s hard to match it up. Also, there’s a rematch with Margarito. I’d fight Cotto or Margarito. I mean there are a lot of round robins I can be in there with at that weight class. Jenna: Well Shane, we’re also joined by my co-host Geoff Ciani. Geoff. Geoffrey Ciani: Hi Shane. It’s a pleasure to have you back “On the Ropes” again. Mosley: Thank you. Ciani: Speaking to your jump to 154 and some of your possible fights there, I’m wondering, do you consider this move to 154 a permanent move where you’ll fight the rest of your career there or would you still consider fighting fights at 147 if the right fights were available? Mosley: Yeah, I mean if the right fight was available I can see myself fighting at 147. It’s not that I can’t make the weight. I can make the weight. I think I get away with a lot moving up to 154 or heavier weight classes because of the punching power that I carry. I’m able to nullify a lot of the weight with the punching power. I think that’s an advantage for me. Ciani: Now Shane, I want to return to your last fight for a couple of questions here. I’m curious, I think that you as a fighter you usually have a pretty good idea of how badly you have an opponent hurt when you catch him with some good shots, and you definitely caught Floyd with some good shots there. How badly did you think that you had him hurt during that round? Mosley: I think he was one punch away from being knocked out. Ciani: You appeared to be a little bit uncharacteristically winded it looked from my untrained eye. Did you get a little tired in that fight and if so, do you think that the long layoff you had between the Margarito fight and that fight may have had a bigger impact on your performance than you would have imagined? Mosley: No, I wasn’t fatigued or tired at all whatsoever. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the leaning on my neck. It got real tight and then I couldn’t throw any punches after that. I wasn’t tired. Physically, I wasn’t tired. I was just tight from all the leaning on my neck, from being on my neck, and I guess that’s what happened and I think it happens to a lot of fighters so that’s part of boxing. I wasn’t prepared for that tactic. Ciani: Now do you think that perhaps maybe you would have been a little bit better prepared for Floyd if the fight with Berto that you were supposed to have in January had gone through had it not been for the earthquake in Haiti? Mosley: I mean there are a lot of different excuses you can come up with. I thought I was prepared very well. That night wasn’t my night. I landed the shots I needed to land, I just couldn’t finish it off and Floyd did an excellent job of recovering and doing what he needed to do to win the fight. Like I said, the only thing that happened was if you look at the tape, there was a lot of jumping on my head and my neck and a lot of that. That’s what I didn’t work for. I didn’t work for preparing my neck for that type of fight, which I should have, because I watched him to do it to a lot of other fighters but that’s down on me. That was my mistake and he benefitted from that and he won. Ciani: Was there anything about Floyd that surprised you that night? Mosley: No, I pretty much thought that was going to be Floyd. It was a fight, again, that I knew exactly what to do and what not to do with him. I thought I would be a lot more successful with what I wanted to do. Like I said, that one thing that was in the fight, that’s what happened. When you’re in the middle of the fight you can’t say oh I want to rest my neck because I can’t throw punches. It was something that he did and he was successful with it. That’s all a part of fighting. Jenna: Shane, we were talking before about some of the matches you could have at the 154 pound weight class but ultimately, what fight are you most interested in getting? Mosley: Well, Sergio Martinez is the middleweight champion. Then you got Pacquiao that’s out there. There’s Cotto, there’s Mararito again, and Winky Wright’s still looming out there. There’s a lot of different fights that can be fought that people might want to see. I’m in the equation and I’m not done yet. I’m not finished. I’m ready to go out there and do my thing and entertain the people and the fans. Jenna: Now Shane, you turn 39 years old by the time you face Mora. How much longer do you see yourself fighting? Mosley: Until I feel I don’t want to do it anymore. I mean I might be fighting at age 45 like Bernard. I don’t know yet. I got to get some money back into my pocket and stuff like that. I still have the physical ability, I still have the know-how, and I still can beat these top fighters so I’m going to keep on fighting until I can’t do it anymore. Jenna: Alright, now let’s talk about the sport for a second. You obviously mentioned Pacquiao before and the fight that everyone wants to see now is a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather. From everything you’ve seen in the negotiations that they’re going through and your negotiations, of course, with Floyd—do you think that fight will happen? Mosley: Well, I don’t know. I haven’t really heard from Floyd and what he wants to do and Pacquiao it seems like has some health problems over there in the Philipines, so none of these guys look like they’re getting ready to get in the ring anytime soon. There can be a fight maybe sometime in mid-2011 before they decide to start getting ready for or decide to even fight. By then I might even have two fights. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know. It’s very questionable whether this fight will happen or can happen at this point. Jenna: Alright now I brought this up before and I said if you’re successful against Mora, who would you go to next and you mentioned Sergio Martinez. Now he’s actually currently the middleweight champion. Let’s say a fight can be made with him. Would you consider fighting him at that weight class to make the fight happen? Mosley: Yeah, I mean he’s the middleweight champion. We’ll probably fight at a catch weight, 155 or 156 or something like that. We’ll work it out. I’m sure he’s available and willing to fight. Actually, he was willing to fight me at 60-40. That was surprising to me that I could get a 60-40 fight with Sergio Martinez but I couldn’t get one with Andre Berto. That was shocking to me.