What the hell happened to Mosley?

The once triumphant underdog resided himself to walking home with his head hung in shame and his tail between his legs. Shane Mosley has had a long career, and his fair share of losses, but I’ve never seen him so tense, petrified to throw a punch, a sitting target for the faster, stronger Mayweather. Mosley did not show up for the fight, and after an electrifying round two where Mosley nearly toppled Mayweather with a crashing right hand, Mosley seemed to give up, his energy slowly leaving him, his arms rubber, his hands reduced to balls of lead. The crowd watched in agony as Mosley took 10 rounds of brutal punishment, while Mayweather landed straight right after straight right with ridiculous ease. Truthfully, I gave up on Mosley after round 4, and the rest of the fight I just begged him to do something. Anything. Mosley’s trainer Nazim Richardson joined me in my pleads, demanding that Mosley get back in the fight, trying desperately to invoke Mosley’s warrior spirit which was nowhere to be seen on that night. No, my pleads, Nazim Richardson’s words of encouragement, and even the deafening chants from the crowd could do nothing as Mayweather hammered the nails into the coffin of Sugar Shane Mosley’s career with his perfectly timed straight right hands.

I doubt that I’m the only one who noticed it, but there was a sense of familiarity in the Mayweather vs Mosley fight on May 1st. It reminded me of a fight that took place not too long ago between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. Both the Mayweather vs Mosley fight and the De La Hoya vs Pacquiao fight took place at welterweight after both Mosley and De La Hoya enjoyed stints in the heavier middleweight division. Both fights showcased hall of fame caliber fighters being brutally thrashed by younger, stronger, faster boxers. Both fights signaled the end of an era, and the timely retirement of a legend. Mosley and De La Hoya enjoyed classic bouts against each other, with Mosley emerging the victor both times, and now both are boxing promoters under De La Hoya’s Goldenboy Promotions. It is too early to tell if Mosley is ready to retire, but the strings of fate are certainly pulling Mosley in that direction. I admire De La Hoya’s decision to retire gracefully after his one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao, but I have a feeling that for a fighter like Mosley, retirement is a thought worse than death. Perhaps he can take comfort in training his son Shane Jr. who is an aspiring boxer.

So back to the initial question: What the hell happened to Mosley? There are countless possible reasons for his pitiful performance on Saturday night, and I will go through some of the possible reasons.

1) Mayweather’s defense was too much: A very probable cause for Mosley’s lackluster performance. While not always apparent, the beauty of Mayweather’s style isn’t all about straight right hands and left hooks, but it’s what he does to set them up. Whether it’s his shoulder rolls or his illegal use of his elbow to control the heads of his opponents in close, Mayweather’s speed and counter-punching style is enough to frustrate and neutralize some of the best boxers out there. While this is most likely a large part of the reason why the fight was so one-sided, I don’t believe Mayweather deserves all the credit.

2) Mosley is too old: Another possible cause which is easy to resort to, but not necessarily true. In January 2009, Mosley showed a dominant performance over the WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, showing that he still had his trademark tenacity, spirit, and powerpunches to boot, and unless he miraculously aged 10 years in a year and a half, it seems unlikely that this is the only reason why Mosley wasn’t himself on Saturday. Inability to pull the trigger is a tell-tale sign that a boxer is over the hill and perhaps this loss will mark the beginning of a steep decline for Sugar Shane.

3) Mosley over-trained: Most fighters will hold training camps a month or two before the fight and they will use this time to work on techniques and conditioning, ensuring that they are in their peak condition by fight night. Mosley however was initially scheduled to fight young prospect, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto on January 2010, but the fight was canceled after Berto lost several family members in the earthquake in Haiti. Following the collapse of the Berto fight, Mosley went after Mayweather, and scheduling two training camps so soon together, may have caused Mosley to peak too early and not be in top shape for the fight with Mayweather. The random Olympic style drug testing leading up to the fight may have made it even harder for Mosley to make weight and stay in peak condition.

4) Pressure: It’s easy to look at Sugar Shane Mosley and judge him for his lackluster performance, but it is certainly something else to be him. There might just have been too much riding Mosley’s shoulders that night, and the once spirited underdog collapsed the pressure. He needed to prove to himself that he wasn’t too old to compete with the upper echelon of the sport. He wanted to silence the skeptics and the critics who counted him out, as an old has-been. He wanted to silence Mayweather for all the nasty remarks he had been hurling around at press conferences. Countless fans were counting on Mosley to end Mayweather’s tyrannical reign as the king of boxing, and it felt as though that thunderous right Mosley landed in round 2 was a triumphant release of all these pressures. For one glorious moment, Mosley saw a glimmer of hope, a release from the mountain of pent up frustration, a chance of victory, but in one short round, Mosley would find himself on the receiving end, watching helplessly as Mayweather wrenched control of the fight, leaving Mosley to collapse under the mountain of pressure.

5) Mayweather’s pressure: This is an aspect of boxing and combat sports in general that is often neglected by the average fan. If one has never been faced with a tough opponent in a physical confrontation, it is difficult to imagine or describe the “pressure” that boxers face. Most often, when people think of ring “pressure” it comes in the form of one boxer constantly pressing forward, while the other boxer is forced to move back. While this is indeed one kind of pressure, there is another kind of pressure which is exerted by skilled boxers. This kind of pressure is stifling and mind-numbing, and it creates a kind of tunnel-vision, making the ring appear smaller than it is, seemingly limiting ones options. To any common bystander, it may look baffling as to why a boxer is being hit by punches he should be able to avoid, and oftentimes, it is this pressure that is the cause. In the case of Mayweather, his pressure causes opponents to stand in front of him and fight him at his pace. Rather than using the entire ring, circling with jabs to the head and body, opponents strangely find themselves standing in front of Mayweather, fighting to his strengths, succumbing to hard counter-punches. Oddly, I’ve never known Mayweather to exert all that much pressure, but then again, I’ve never been in the ring with him.

Verdict
It was most likely a combination of all the aforementioned reasons, but how much of each reason is of course subject to debate. Perhaps Mosley over-trained and was fatigued from the blood testing and then found himself powerless against Mayweather’s pressure and became frustrated when he couldn’t crack Mayweather’s defense. Maybe Mosley was just scared of being knocked out. Maybe Mosley traded his dignity for a fat paycheck. Everyone can have their theories, and Mosley can give the answers people want to hear, but no one will ever know for certain what happened behind Mosley’s crystal blue eyes on Saturday night. Do I think Mosley should retire? Perhaps. Do I think Mosley can still win fights? Most certainly. Do I think Mosley can compete with the top echelon of boxers? No, not really. Not unless he wants to find himself on the receiving end of another brutal beatdown.

The bottomline is fight between Mayweather and Mosley was a disappointment on so many different levels. The fans who were expecting a great action fight were left watching a hopelessly one-sided thrashing. Nazim Richardson was left watching his meticulous gameplan unravel in the hands of a fighter unwilling to adhere to the gameplan. Mayweather finally came out of his shell and pressed the offense, only to find his opponent unwilling to fight, resulting in another “boring” Mayweather bout. Mosley’s children watched their father, the once proud warrior, stumble out of the ring, heavy-hearted and with his spirit broken. Possibly, worst of all, Mosley suffered 10 rounds of humiliation and frustration, unable to pull the trigger, unable to put up a decent fight, unable to be himself. Each time Mosley missed a punch or was hit flush with a big right hand, he seemed to shake his head, telling himself to try harder, telling himself he was better than that, refusing to believe that it was time to hang up the gloves. But after 10 humiliating rounds, all Mosley was left with the sixth loss of his career and a deep sense of bitter disappointment.