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By CompuBox - In the summer of 2003, Ricardo Mayorga was fresh off his second victory over Vernon Forrest while Shane Mosley was several months removed from a cut-induced no-contest against Raul Marquez. At that point in time a match between the Nicaraguan wild man and the cool Californian would have been an intriguing clash of styles as well as big business for the sport. As fate would have it, both attempted to further consolidate their credentials with mixed results. That December Mayorga barely failed in his attempt to unify three welterweight belts by losing a majority decision to IBF king Cory Spinks while Mosley won the WBA and WBC straps at 154 by decisioning Oscar de la Hoya in September.
The bad news is that they didn’t meet when both were closer to their respective peaks. The good news is that the September 27 match between Mosley (44-5, 37 KO) and Mayorga (29-6-1, 23 KO) remains an interesting crossroads fight in terms of styles and their respective career paths. Mosley, who turned 37 on Sept. 7, comes off a close and compelling decision loss to then-WBA welterweight king Miguel Cotto last November 10 while Mayorga’s last outing – a majority decision win over Fernando Vargas two weeks later – was arguably his best effort since the first Forrest fight. Despite the results of their most recent fights, Mayorga – who will turn 35 on Oct. 3 – is a hefty 7 ˝-to-1 underdog, mostly because “Sugar Shane” was highly competitive against a confirmed top three pound-for-pound entrant while Mayorga out-slugged a hefty and faded Vargas. [details]
The bad news is that they didn’t meet when both were closer to their respective peaks. The good news is that the September 27 match between Mosley (44-5, 37 KO) and Mayorga (29-6-1, 23 KO) remains an interesting crossroads fight in terms of styles and their respective career paths. Mosley, who turned 37 on Sept. 7, comes off a close and compelling decision loss to then-WBA welterweight king Miguel Cotto last November 10 while Mayorga’s last outing – a majority decision win over Fernando Vargas two weeks later – was arguably his best effort since the first Forrest fight. Despite the results of their most recent fights, Mayorga – who will turn 35 on Oct. 3 – is a hefty 7 ˝-to-1 underdog, mostly because “Sugar Shane” was highly competitive against a confirmed top three pound-for-pound entrant while Mayorga out-slugged a hefty and faded Vargas. [details]