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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - It’s a good thing I’m a little thin on accomplishments.
I was MVP of a Cinderella hockey run as a Niagara Falls pre-teen, and I’ve managed to outrun about 10 percent of the field while completing a dozen 10-plus mile road races since… but no one’s been ringing the cell phone lately asking for up-front tickets to my Hall of Fame inductions.
It’s just as well, I guess, because I don’t particularly like being a bull’s-eye.
These days, no matter the acclaim earned over a career in an endeavor of choice, it seems a righteously indignant wannabe is rarely far away with a sheaf of reasons why even one more split-second in the spotlight – win, lose, draw or otherwise – will immediately reduce all legacies to rubble.
This past weekend, it was Shane Mosley’s turn in the crosshairs.
Again.
Nearly every day since last May – when a wide decision against Canelo Alvarez was the third straight loss in a career that three years earlier had him opposite Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a PPV extravaganza – some soothsayer from some outlet has written that “Sugar” ought to retire in order to save his resume.
Or just as accurately, the writer's warped view of it.
As if those three losses – or the five more he’d had in his previous 13 fights – would cancel out titles in three weight classes, two dramatic wins over a sure-fire Hall of Famer and more plentiful highlight-reel fodder than any 100 pugs whose careers dissolved long before anyone noticed.
It’s been nonsense at every stop from greatness to mediocrity.
But it’s not the first time Mosley’s been the target.
Shane heard the same “he’s done” chatter during a 1-4 stretch from 2002 through 2004, in which he was handily beaten twice apiece by Vernon Forrest at 147 and Winky Wright at 154. Incidentally, all he did in response was win seven of eight, including a vicious beating of supposed “most feared fighter in the world” Antonio Margarito.
This time, the naysayers pounced when Mayweather outpointed him in 2010, when Manny Pacquiao outworked him in 2011 and when Alvarez outslugged him across another 12 inglorious rounds. [Click Here To Read More]
I was MVP of a Cinderella hockey run as a Niagara Falls pre-teen, and I’ve managed to outrun about 10 percent of the field while completing a dozen 10-plus mile road races since… but no one’s been ringing the cell phone lately asking for up-front tickets to my Hall of Fame inductions.
It’s just as well, I guess, because I don’t particularly like being a bull’s-eye.
These days, no matter the acclaim earned over a career in an endeavor of choice, it seems a righteously indignant wannabe is rarely far away with a sheaf of reasons why even one more split-second in the spotlight – win, lose, draw or otherwise – will immediately reduce all legacies to rubble.
This past weekend, it was Shane Mosley’s turn in the crosshairs.
Again.
Nearly every day since last May – when a wide decision against Canelo Alvarez was the third straight loss in a career that three years earlier had him opposite Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a PPV extravaganza – some soothsayer from some outlet has written that “Sugar” ought to retire in order to save his resume.
Or just as accurately, the writer's warped view of it.
As if those three losses – or the five more he’d had in his previous 13 fights – would cancel out titles in three weight classes, two dramatic wins over a sure-fire Hall of Famer and more plentiful highlight-reel fodder than any 100 pugs whose careers dissolved long before anyone noticed.
It’s been nonsense at every stop from greatness to mediocrity.
But it’s not the first time Mosley’s been the target.
Shane heard the same “he’s done” chatter during a 1-4 stretch from 2002 through 2004, in which he was handily beaten twice apiece by Vernon Forrest at 147 and Winky Wright at 154. Incidentally, all he did in response was win seven of eight, including a vicious beating of supposed “most feared fighter in the world” Antonio Margarito.
This time, the naysayers pounced when Mayweather outpointed him in 2010, when Manny Pacquiao outworked him in 2011 and when Alvarez outslugged him across another 12 inglorious rounds. [Click Here To Read More]
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