By Mark Vester
Before a record crowd of 20,880 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39KOs) put on a performance of a lifetime with a one-sided beating to stop Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27KOs) in nine rounds to capture the WBA welterweight title.
Mosley jumped on Margarito in first with some crisp body work and followed up with punches upstairs. The two fighters stood toe to toe with Mosley landing the quicker punches. Mosley used his jab to keep Margarito at bay in the second and continued to go after the body. Margarito tried to make it an inside fight, but Mosley was winning with his quicker hands.
Margarito began to bully Mosley in the third, actually backing him against the ropes to land some hard shots. Mosley came back to steal the round with some perfect right hand power punches. Round four was a right hand fest for Mosley, who never missed with his overhand money punch. In the final ten seconds, he caught Margarito with two rights that appeared to buckle his knees. Round five was more of Mosley hitting those right hands and combinations to the body. Blood began to flow from Margarito's mouth.
The sixth round was a wipeout for Mosley. He knocked Margarito around with right hands, lefts to the body and blcoked every counter. Margarito appeared to be getting tired by this point and his face showed a lot of frustration. Margarito began to let his punches flow in the seventh, but Mosley used his defense and counterpunching to outbox Margarito.
In the eight round, Margarito was coming on but a multiple combination of power punches had Margarito in serious trouble. Mosley followed up with more power punches and sent Margarito down and almost out. Margarito barely made it to his feet and had no legs as he made it back to his corner.
Prior to the ninth round, Margarito's corner nearly stopped the fight, but let him go on. Mosley continued the beating in the ninth as Margarito was pinned against the ropes. As Mosley poured on the punches, the ref jumped in to stop the fight.
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