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Don’t Praise Mosley & Criticize Floyd
By Brent Matteo Alderson
The past few years, members of the boxing fraternity have criticized Floyd Mayweather’s level of competition as well as his claim to greatness. And rightly so because for a three year period following his two fights with Jose Luis Castillo in 2002, he chose to take the path of least resistance, similar to the one that Roy Jones took when he was being well compensated for fighting palookas on HBO.
Starting in 2006, Mayweather changed his tune and won the linear World Welterweight title in wins over Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, and then finished 2007 with a win over a 154 pound De La Hoya and an undefeated Ricky Hatton.
Plus prior to 2002, Mayweather had already established himself as one of the great 130 pounders with wins over Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, and Angel Manfredy.
I’m not saying Floyd is in the upper echelon of time greats. In an article I wrote for Boxingscene.com, HYPERLINK "http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19113" http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19113 , I wrote how Floyd failed to solidify his greatness by refusing to embrace the responsibility associated with greatness by not stepping up to the challenge and engaging in a number of attractive match-ups following the bout with Hatton.
Floyd can’t be placed in the upper echelon of all time greats because he never won a fight he wasn’t supposed to win and for whatever reason didn’t fight some of the fighters he should have.
That being said, it perturbs how certain writers are critical of Floyd’s career and then praise Shane Mosley’s.
Just recently Doug Fischer and Michael Rosenthal of Ringtv.com wrote columns about how Mayweather “played it safe for six years” and missed enhancing his legacy by not scrapping with a list of guys ranging from Stevie Johnston to Kostya Tszyu.
Take a look at Shane Mosley’s career. Shane won the IBF 135 pound title and failed to unify with Stevie Johnston, his WBC counterpart, and never defended the title against someone who was even remotely threatening.
Then he skipped the 140 pound division so he could move up to 147 to fight De La Hoya, missing the opportunity to fight the hard punching Kostya Tszyu in the process.
Now I know you guys will say that Shane was the guy that gave Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright their first big fight opportunities, but after he beat Oscar, Shane milked HBO for everything he could and fought three sacrificial lambs in Antonio Diaz, Shannon Taylor, and Adrian Stone.
Granted, Antonio Diaz wasn’t a bad fighter, but at the time he was a top ten junior-welterweight challenging the welterweight champion of world who was considered by many to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world.
Boxing writers credit Mosley’s pride and his warrior mentality as the reason behind Shane fighting guys like Forrest, Wright, and Margartio, but he tried to taking the easy route after beating De La Hoya in 2000, but he was never able to dictate the direction of his career because he never really developed into major attraction who could carry a show on his own.
After the fight with Adrian Stone, HBO put its foot down and forced him to fight Forrest in a unification bout and Mosley lost to Vernon, twice.
Then in 2003 his career got back on track when he beat Oscar De La Hoya on a horrendous decision. The decision was so bad that the janitor at my workplace who happens to be African American swore that he would never order another fight again.
Plus years later it came out that Mosley had been taking steroids during his preparation for the bout which completely voids the already tainted victory.
Now afterwards Mosley did give Wright his shot at the big time, but since Mosley had never been a big ticket seller and his fights had never been ratings bonanzas the brass at HBO didn’t feel like they had to give him a free pass and had been mindful of Winky Wright’s talent since the loss to Vargas in 1999 and pushed Shane into the fight.
And Mosley lost both those matches even though the second fight was significantly more competitive.
Now after the losses to Wright, Shane has successfully-established himself by fighting top tier competition. His knockout wins over Vargas in 2006 marked the end of Fernando Vargas’s career as a world class fighter and the shut out win over Collazo who almost dethroned Andre Berto in one of the early candidates for the fight of year were impressive.
And the Margarito win put an exclamation point on his career achievements.
Even though Margarito was a huge welterweight coming off of an impressive win over an undefeated Cotto, he was limited, but somehow circumstance and Margarito’s promoter, Top Rank, popularized the notion that Margarito was the most feared fighter in the sport and he developed a reputation that his skills and accomplishments hadn’t merited.
First, Top Rank advanced the notion that Floyd Mayweather was scared of Margarito even though Mayweather’s rejection of an 8-million dollar stemmed from a feud between Arum and Floyd that had been going on since 2000.
Then with Pacquiao’s defeats of Morales and Barrera, there was a vacuum in Mexican boxing and the sport was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next Mexican boxing super-star to continue on the tradition and as a result, fans and experts hastily anointed Margarito even though he had lost to Daniel Santos in 2002 and to Paul Williams one year before the Cotto victory.
The last thing that contributed to Margarito’s inflated reputation was the fact that a number of the sport’s writers reside in Los Angeles and had frequented his training sessions and had became friendly with his team.
If you live near a place where a fighter works-out, and go there regularly and develop a relationship with that fighter, it’s hard not to be biased.
So even though a number of members of the media jumped on the Margarito bandwagon, which was another example of Bob Arum’s promotional genius, a few didn’t.
Rich Marotta vocally picked Mosley in their fight and I had written an article in 2006 about Margarito being vastly over-rated.
Even though the Margarito win was a feather in Mosley’s cap, Sugar Shane still hasn’t accomplished more than Mayweather, and I wouldn’t necessarily consider him to be a ballsier fighter either.
Mosley has an excellent win over De La Hoya in 2000 and a good win over Margarito, which have been the highlights of a hall of fame career that includes titles in three different weight classes, but Mosley was never able to establish a meaningful championship legacy in one of the weight classes where he won his world titles.
Mosley longest reign came at lightweight where he scored eight knockouts in eight defenses against nondescript opposition.
Just look at his title challengers, none of them were elite fighters and most of them were barely on the fringes of contention. Wins against Jesse James Leija and an old John-John Molina just don’t cut it.
Contrarily Mayweather established a solid championship legacy at junior-lightweight where he emphatically solidified his position as a dominant 130 pound champ with his win over Diego Corrales, a fighter that was universally recognized as either the first or second best fighter in the division. Plus Floyd beat an Angel Manfredy that had just knocked out Arturo Gatti and was on a twenty-three fight win streak, and won the title from a solid champion in Genaro Hernandez, a man that had won 12 major title fights and never lost a bout at the weight.
Right now, Floyd is still undefeated and has alphabet titles in five weight classes compared to Mosley’s three.
So these writers need to stop acting like Shane Mosley has taken these dangerous fights because of some altruistic ancient warrior mentality because when Mosley was at the top of the boxing world in 2001 he did the same thing Mayweather is doing and the only reason he’s taken some these dangerous fights is because he doesn’t have enough clout in the market place to call the shots.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. might not be Sugar Ray Leonard, but Shane Mosley definitely isn’t so maybe its time for some of these writers to come back down to reality.
PLEASE SEND E-MAIL COMMENTS TO FightFanNAtion@aol.com
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004 and now works as the head writer for FighFanNation.com. His published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”
anyone agree with any of this?
By Brent Matteo Alderson
The past few years, members of the boxing fraternity have criticized Floyd Mayweather’s level of competition as well as his claim to greatness. And rightly so because for a three year period following his two fights with Jose Luis Castillo in 2002, he chose to take the path of least resistance, similar to the one that Roy Jones took when he was being well compensated for fighting palookas on HBO.
Starting in 2006, Mayweather changed his tune and won the linear World Welterweight title in wins over Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, and then finished 2007 with a win over a 154 pound De La Hoya and an undefeated Ricky Hatton.
Plus prior to 2002, Mayweather had already established himself as one of the great 130 pounders with wins over Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, and Angel Manfredy.
I’m not saying Floyd is in the upper echelon of time greats. In an article I wrote for Boxingscene.com, HYPERLINK "http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19113" http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19113 , I wrote how Floyd failed to solidify his greatness by refusing to embrace the responsibility associated with greatness by not stepping up to the challenge and engaging in a number of attractive match-ups following the bout with Hatton.
Floyd can’t be placed in the upper echelon of all time greats because he never won a fight he wasn’t supposed to win and for whatever reason didn’t fight some of the fighters he should have.
That being said, it perturbs how certain writers are critical of Floyd’s career and then praise Shane Mosley’s.
Just recently Doug Fischer and Michael Rosenthal of Ringtv.com wrote columns about how Mayweather “played it safe for six years” and missed enhancing his legacy by not scrapping with a list of guys ranging from Stevie Johnston to Kostya Tszyu.
Take a look at Shane Mosley’s career. Shane won the IBF 135 pound title and failed to unify with Stevie Johnston, his WBC counterpart, and never defended the title against someone who was even remotely threatening.
Then he skipped the 140 pound division so he could move up to 147 to fight De La Hoya, missing the opportunity to fight the hard punching Kostya Tszyu in the process.
Now I know you guys will say that Shane was the guy that gave Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright their first big fight opportunities, but after he beat Oscar, Shane milked HBO for everything he could and fought three sacrificial lambs in Antonio Diaz, Shannon Taylor, and Adrian Stone.
Granted, Antonio Diaz wasn’t a bad fighter, but at the time he was a top ten junior-welterweight challenging the welterweight champion of world who was considered by many to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world.
Boxing writers credit Mosley’s pride and his warrior mentality as the reason behind Shane fighting guys like Forrest, Wright, and Margartio, but he tried to taking the easy route after beating De La Hoya in 2000, but he was never able to dictate the direction of his career because he never really developed into major attraction who could carry a show on his own.
After the fight with Adrian Stone, HBO put its foot down and forced him to fight Forrest in a unification bout and Mosley lost to Vernon, twice.
Then in 2003 his career got back on track when he beat Oscar De La Hoya on a horrendous decision. The decision was so bad that the janitor at my workplace who happens to be African American swore that he would never order another fight again.
Plus years later it came out that Mosley had been taking steroids during his preparation for the bout which completely voids the already tainted victory.
Now afterwards Mosley did give Wright his shot at the big time, but since Mosley had never been a big ticket seller and his fights had never been ratings bonanzas the brass at HBO didn’t feel like they had to give him a free pass and had been mindful of Winky Wright’s talent since the loss to Vargas in 1999 and pushed Shane into the fight.
And Mosley lost both those matches even though the second fight was significantly more competitive.
Now after the losses to Wright, Shane has successfully-established himself by fighting top tier competition. His knockout wins over Vargas in 2006 marked the end of Fernando Vargas’s career as a world class fighter and the shut out win over Collazo who almost dethroned Andre Berto in one of the early candidates for the fight of year were impressive.
And the Margarito win put an exclamation point on his career achievements.
Even though Margarito was a huge welterweight coming off of an impressive win over an undefeated Cotto, he was limited, but somehow circumstance and Margarito’s promoter, Top Rank, popularized the notion that Margarito was the most feared fighter in the sport and he developed a reputation that his skills and accomplishments hadn’t merited.
First, Top Rank advanced the notion that Floyd Mayweather was scared of Margarito even though Mayweather’s rejection of an 8-million dollar stemmed from a feud between Arum and Floyd that had been going on since 2000.
Then with Pacquiao’s defeats of Morales and Barrera, there was a vacuum in Mexican boxing and the sport was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next Mexican boxing super-star to continue on the tradition and as a result, fans and experts hastily anointed Margarito even though he had lost to Daniel Santos in 2002 and to Paul Williams one year before the Cotto victory.
The last thing that contributed to Margarito’s inflated reputation was the fact that a number of the sport’s writers reside in Los Angeles and had frequented his training sessions and had became friendly with his team.
If you live near a place where a fighter works-out, and go there regularly and develop a relationship with that fighter, it’s hard not to be biased.
So even though a number of members of the media jumped on the Margarito bandwagon, which was another example of Bob Arum’s promotional genius, a few didn’t.
Rich Marotta vocally picked Mosley in their fight and I had written an article in 2006 about Margarito being vastly over-rated.
Even though the Margarito win was a feather in Mosley’s cap, Sugar Shane still hasn’t accomplished more than Mayweather, and I wouldn’t necessarily consider him to be a ballsier fighter either.
Mosley has an excellent win over De La Hoya in 2000 and a good win over Margarito, which have been the highlights of a hall of fame career that includes titles in three different weight classes, but Mosley was never able to establish a meaningful championship legacy in one of the weight classes where he won his world titles.
Mosley longest reign came at lightweight where he scored eight knockouts in eight defenses against nondescript opposition.
Just look at his title challengers, none of them were elite fighters and most of them were barely on the fringes of contention. Wins against Jesse James Leija and an old John-John Molina just don’t cut it.
Contrarily Mayweather established a solid championship legacy at junior-lightweight where he emphatically solidified his position as a dominant 130 pound champ with his win over Diego Corrales, a fighter that was universally recognized as either the first or second best fighter in the division. Plus Floyd beat an Angel Manfredy that had just knocked out Arturo Gatti and was on a twenty-three fight win streak, and won the title from a solid champion in Genaro Hernandez, a man that had won 12 major title fights and never lost a bout at the weight.
Right now, Floyd is still undefeated and has alphabet titles in five weight classes compared to Mosley’s three.
So these writers need to stop acting like Shane Mosley has taken these dangerous fights because of some altruistic ancient warrior mentality because when Mosley was at the top of the boxing world in 2001 he did the same thing Mayweather is doing and the only reason he’s taken some these dangerous fights is because he doesn’t have enough clout in the market place to call the shots.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. might not be Sugar Ray Leonard, but Shane Mosley definitely isn’t so maybe its time for some of these writers to come back down to reality.
PLEASE SEND E-MAIL COMMENTS TO FightFanNAtion@aol.com
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004 and now works as the head writer for FighFanNation.com. His published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”
anyone agree with any of this?
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