Tweet
Originally posted by GhostofDempsey
View Post
Exclusive Interview: Shane Mosley
by Geoffrey Ciani - Sugar Shane Mosley is currently the top dog in the welterweight division. His impressive destruction of Antonio Margarito earlier this year left no doubts about it. In recent weeks and months, Mosley has made his intentions clear—he still wants to take on the best in the division, whether it is a fight with Floyd Mayweather, a fight with Manny Pacquiao, a rematch with Miguel Cotto, or a battle with any of the other top contenders in the 147 pound weight class. I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a nice chat with the welter weight champion. Here is what he had to say:
Audio:
Q: You were in attendance for the Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez bout. What is your evaluation of Mayweather’s performance?
A: Well, I really couldn’t evaluate it because he fought a junior lightweight and the lightweight champion. I couldn’t tell if he actually improved or anything because he was so much bigger than the guy, but from what I had seen he looked like he has his speed back, he looked pretty sharp, but look at the opponent he was facing..
Q: After the fight you actually challenged Floyd Mayweather and many observers, according to what I have read, noted that Mayweather appeared intimidated by you. Did you get that impression at the time?
A: Well, I’ve always known that Floyd is intimidated by me. I mean, I see him out at different places and he’s intimidated, he doesn’t really want to fight me. He would much rather fight guys that he could handpick and get victories from and basically just get money. He can make money fighting Marquez, make money fighting (Manny) Pacquiao, and make money fighting the Ricky Hattons of the world, but when is he going to get in there with a welterweight again? With a real welterweight? I mean, there’s myself—the number one welterweight—and there’s (Miguel) Cotto,(Joshua) Clottey, and (Andre) Berto. We have four welterweights that he hasn’t fought.
Q: After you challenged him, a week later, Mayweather wished you good luck in your career which seemed to indicate he’s not interested in fighting you. He also mentioned that he challenged you twice, and he claims that you turned him down back in 1999 and again in 2006. Did you really turn him down?
A: Like I said, he’s really a liar. He likes to lie a lot. In 1999 there’s a film where he’s fighting in Michigan when he was fighting at 130 and I was fighting at 135, and I asked him, like when HBO does the prefight analysts talk to the fighters before they fight. I talked to him, and hopefully it’s recorded somewhere—I think it was on FX—I asked him, “Are you planning on coming up to lightweight to fight me?” And he said, “No,” He had no intention of coming to lightweight to fight me, he wanted t beat Carlos Monzon’s record. He didn’t want to come to lightweight. That’s when I jumped from lightweight to welterweight to fight Oscar De La Hoya. That was the first incident that he’s talking about, so he turned me down in 1999.
Now, the other time he’s talking about is when I fought three times—one, two, three, back-to-back-to-back—and they tried to rush me to fight him right away, like two or three months later. I said, give me a month, and we’ll do it like, I think it was in January—I said, “We’ll do it in January”. They wanted to do it in like November or December, and I said, “Give me a month and we’ll do it in January or February.” They didn’t want to do that. So they chose to fight Oscar De La Hoya. I said, “Go ahead and fight Oscar, and if you beat Oscar, then let’s get busy. Let’s do this.” He beat Oscar—he didn’t want to fight me.
He’s been turning me down. I hate when he continues to say, “Oh, he turned me down because of a tooth ache”. Yeah. I got head butted in that fight that and my tooth was loose that night. They asked me to fight Mayweather and I said, “Give me an extra month, and I’ll fight him.” He didn’t want to fight me, which was cool. He could go and fight Oscar because that’s more money. Okay. That’s cool, but after that fight if you win—fight me. He didn’t want to do that. He chose to retire or fight somebody else. I’m getting tired of that lie! They need to wipe that lie out of there. The reporters and stuff, they keep saying it, so that lie needs to be talked about.
by Geoffrey Ciani - Sugar Shane Mosley is currently the top dog in the welterweight division. His impressive destruction of Antonio Margarito earlier this year left no doubts about it. In recent weeks and months, Mosley has made his intentions clear—he still wants to take on the best in the division, whether it is a fight with Floyd Mayweather, a fight with Manny Pacquiao, a rematch with Miguel Cotto, or a battle with any of the other top contenders in the 147 pound weight class. I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a nice chat with the welter weight champion. Here is what he had to say:
Audio:
Q: You were in attendance for the Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez bout. What is your evaluation of Mayweather’s performance?
A: Well, I really couldn’t evaluate it because he fought a junior lightweight and the lightweight champion. I couldn’t tell if he actually improved or anything because he was so much bigger than the guy, but from what I had seen he looked like he has his speed back, he looked pretty sharp, but look at the opponent he was facing..
Q: After the fight you actually challenged Floyd Mayweather and many observers, according to what I have read, noted that Mayweather appeared intimidated by you. Did you get that impression at the time?
A: Well, I’ve always known that Floyd is intimidated by me. I mean, I see him out at different places and he’s intimidated, he doesn’t really want to fight me. He would much rather fight guys that he could handpick and get victories from and basically just get money. He can make money fighting Marquez, make money fighting (Manny) Pacquiao, and make money fighting the Ricky Hattons of the world, but when is he going to get in there with a welterweight again? With a real welterweight? I mean, there’s myself—the number one welterweight—and there’s (Miguel) Cotto,(Joshua) Clottey, and (Andre) Berto. We have four welterweights that he hasn’t fought.
Q: After you challenged him, a week later, Mayweather wished you good luck in your career which seemed to indicate he’s not interested in fighting you. He also mentioned that he challenged you twice, and he claims that you turned him down back in 1999 and again in 2006. Did you really turn him down?
A: Like I said, he’s really a liar. He likes to lie a lot. In 1999 there’s a film where he’s fighting in Michigan when he was fighting at 130 and I was fighting at 135, and I asked him, like when HBO does the prefight analysts talk to the fighters before they fight. I talked to him, and hopefully it’s recorded somewhere—I think it was on FX—I asked him, “Are you planning on coming up to lightweight to fight me?” And he said, “No,” He had no intention of coming to lightweight to fight me, he wanted t beat Carlos Monzon’s record. He didn’t want to come to lightweight. That’s when I jumped from lightweight to welterweight to fight Oscar De La Hoya. That was the first incident that he’s talking about, so he turned me down in 1999.
Now, the other time he’s talking about is when I fought three times—one, two, three, back-to-back-to-back—and they tried to rush me to fight him right away, like two or three months later. I said, give me a month, and we’ll do it like, I think it was in January—I said, “We’ll do it in January”. They wanted to do it in like November or December, and I said, “Give me a month and we’ll do it in January or February.” They didn’t want to do that. So they chose to fight Oscar De La Hoya. I said, “Go ahead and fight Oscar, and if you beat Oscar, then let’s get busy. Let’s do this.” He beat Oscar—he didn’t want to fight me.
He’s been turning me down. I hate when he continues to say, “Oh, he turned me down because of a tooth ache”. Yeah. I got head butted in that fight that and my tooth was loose that night. They asked me to fight Mayweather and I said, “Give me an extra month, and I’ll fight him.” He didn’t want to fight me, which was cool. He could go and fight Oscar because that’s more money. Okay. That’s cool, but after that fight if you win—fight me. He didn’t want to do that. He chose to retire or fight somebody else. I’m getting tired of that lie! They need to wipe that lie out of there. The reporters and stuff, they keep saying it, so that lie needs to be talked about.
Comment